Abstract
Objective: To describe the difficulties faced by immigrant Chinese mothers caring for their children in Japan and their process of coping with cross-cultural experiences.
Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews of 8 Chinese–Japanese mothers living in the Tokyo metropolitan area who had given birth to and were caring for their children in Japan. A qualitative descriptive research method was used.
Results: We found 3 categories of difficulties that these women faced repeatedly: 1) Could not imagine how to be a Japanese mother; 2) Were confronted by a wall of a different culture; 3) Lost their sense of self in cross-cultural experiences. We found 1 common category of coping: We found 1 category of outcomes from coping with difficulties: They found new identities as mothers with both Japanese and Chinese cultural characteristics.
Conclusion: We found that they coped with their difficulties by observational learning and imitation, and that this result resembles the stage theory of culture shock proposed by Pedersen; that is, Chinese–Japanese mothers experienced intercultural adjustment and mothering together over time, because caring for their children forced them to acclimate to their new culture.
