2014 Volume 39 Pages 65-78
Intercultural marriage is perhaps the most intense and ultimate case of intercultural experiences. For mothers in these relationships, childrearing is a special challenge because of the additional difficulties and complexity it presents, owing to differences in culture. I intend to comment freely from an intercultural psychological perspective as an outsider of this particular field of research; the paper addresses three research projects on mothers’ agency in childrearing.
This author tried to highlight the diversity of the research projects by comparing the three. I tried to share my thoughts and questions inspired by the projects, to identify voices/narratives of those whose voices were not heard enough, and to provide suggestions for future research. By focusing on the vibrant agency and a larger framework of acculturation and intercultural adjustment in which child rearing is embedded, I recommend incorporating the concepts of ego identity and acculturation strategy as either an independent or explanatory variable. By using Berry’s model of acculturation, I also explored the implications for intercultural educators in terms of what we can do to generate mutually satisfying intercultural contact between us and those families of intercultural marriage at different levels of social policy, community support, intercultural education at school, and our attitude and feelings towards such families.
