"How will this reflect on the family" Lokeen Kee Kehan Gay? Indo-Canadian parents and adolescents : Intergenerational differences and health factors

• Main Author: Lerch, Noreen Marie
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/6005

In this study, intergenerational conflict or disagreement between Indo-Canadian parents and their daughters was examined. The purpose was to elicit participants' perceptions of conflicts or disagreements as experienced within the context of their culture and as described by themselves, to identify health problems which participants believed to be related to the issues, to identify processes that families use to seek solutions, and to identify implications for nursing, health practice and research. The questions were addressed through a qualitative ethnographic approach. The study was guided by the writings of Anderson (1985, 1990), Kleinman, (1978) and Leininger (1978,1991) and Kleinman's Explanatory Model Framework of the Socio-Cultural Context of Health (1978). For data collection, two sources of data were used. In-depth semi-structured interviews with Indo-Canadian parents and with Indo-Canadian adolescents and young women were conducted over a period of ten weeks. Participant observation at three Indo-Canadian youth and parent symposia provided another rich source of data. The researcher actively participated in discussion groups of parents and adolescents and young women at the symposiums. Field notes were written at the symposia and shared with the participants for purposes of validation and in order to assist the group to write a report and recommendations from the symposia. The data from the field notes and the interview transcripts were analyzed through a qualitative process of content analysis as described by Lindlof (1995) and Hammersley & Atkinson, (1992). From this analysis, the participants' explanatory framework was identified. The two main concepts of this framework which explain the perspectives of the participants were Bridging Two Cultures and Lokeen Kee Kehan Gay, "What will the community think?" or " How will this reflect on the family?" Within these, other themes emerged: family and cultural values, issues from the perspective of daughters and mothers and primarily related to gender issues, living in two cultures, learning and negotiating boundaries, working out conflicts, health problems, and access to help. The interdependence of Lokeen Kee Kehan Gay and living in two cultures was examined in relation to the function of gender roles in women's lives. Implications for nursing and health practice, education and research concluded this study.