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INTRODUCTION
Problem Statement
Trauma has devastated the family structure and created many complexities for
Cambodian families. On the one hand, as a result of these traumatic experiences, many
adult Cambodians have developed a strong sense of identity. Due to their struggles and
ability to survive, these adults want to pass their roots and ethnic identity to their children.
On the other hand, their children may reject or resent the past, which tends to create
conflicts within the family structure. The children are constantly challenged to prove
their own ability to adjust to a new culture, as well as to the social and economic
difficulties faced by their parents. These social and economic hardships have created
many strains and imbalances between the parents and children in Southeast Asian
families.
In Cambodia, parents have the liberty to use corporal punishment to discipline their
children. According to Aylesworth and Ossorio (1983), a person experiences cultural
displacement when his/her culture of origin conflicts with the new culture in which
he/she is currently living. Many Cambodian parents in the United States experience
cultural displacement when they are forced to accept the "Western standard" of child
rearing practices as appropriate and to reject traditional ones as unacceptable.
The literature shows that Cambodian American children are able to acculturate to the
American culture faster than their parents (Mortland, 1994). The rapid acculturation of
Cambodian youth leads to the development of new ways of thinking and behavior that
often conflict with those of their elders (Ebihara, 1985). Cambodian youth and their
parents also may have different perceptions of discipline practices. For instance,
traditional Cambodian elders may believe in corporal punishment as an appropriate form
of child discipline, but younger Cambodians may agree with the Western perception of
corporal punishment as abuse rather than discipline. Similarly, Weinstein-Shr (1989, as
cited in Wright, 1998) noted that the speed of acculturation among the youth often leads
to family conflict.
Child maltreatment is one of the problems that the Cambodian community in Los
Angeles County is facing. In 1987, the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family
Services established the Asian/Pacific Project to meet the needs of the Asian/Pacific
Islander community (Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services,
1993). From March 1989 to the end of 1997, the Asian/Pacific Project received 14,488
cases from the Child Abuse Hotline. Of those cases, 4,701 (32.5%) involved families of
Cambodian descent (Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services,
1997). The problem is alarming for the Cambodian community and it merits further
investigation so the field of social work can formulate interventions that are best suited to
handle the matter.
Issues Explored
Questions asked in this study were: 1) What are the types of
child rearing and disciplinary practices among Cambodians; 2) What is the association of
Cambodian perceptions of child disciplinary practices and the degree of acculturation; 3)
Could some of the disciplinary practices be viewed as physical and psychological
maltreatment; 4) Does time of entrance into the United States make a difference in
acculturation and child rearing practices; and 5) What is the association of other
demographics and descriptive characteristic with questions 1, 2, and 3?
Definition of Terms
Discipline: "Training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or
moral
character" (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 1997, p. 330).
Reasoning: Reasoning includes actions such as lecturing on the inappropriate
behavior,
time out, and removal of desired object.
Psychological Maltreatment: According to Garbarino (1987), there are various
types of
psychological maltreatment, including rejecting, isolating, terrorizing, ignoring, and
corrupting. This study includes actions such as verbal threats to disown, threats to use
physical punishment, and name calling as psychological maltreatment as well.
Physical Maltreatment: "Any act which results in non-accidental, physical injury.
Inflicted physical injury most often represents unreasonable severe, corporal punishment
or unjustifiable punishment" (Lungren, 1994, p. 3). In this study, discipline that contains
the form of slapping, hitting, pushing, spanking, whipping, shoving, biting, cutting, and
burning is consider as physical maltreatment.
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