Retooling Childbearing Perspectives and Patterns: A Hmong-American Family Survival Strategy
Author(s):
Helsel, Deborah G.
Format:
Conference presentation
Publisher:
1993.
Language:
English
Abstract:
Among the thousands of southeast Asian refugees who fled to the US in the wake of the Vietnam war were the Lao Hmong, a rural preliterate, nonindustrial people who came with virtually no vocational, educational, or material resources suited to life in the US. The Hmong culture in Southeast Asia expressed itself in extremely high levels of childbearing. The real or intended level & pace of childbearing among adult & adolescent Hmong-Americans are compared on the basis of survey & open-ended interviews conducted with 100 adult & adolescent Hmong immigrants in Calif's central valley. Qualitative & quantitative findings indicate that adolescents plan to delay marriage until after age 21, attend at least 2 years of college, postpone first childbirths until after age 24, & have an average of 3 children -- all strikingly different from the life course events of adults. Virtually all adolescents & adults expressed the belief that wage labor by both men & women is essential for a family's financial survival. Childbearing perspectives & patterns are indeed changing as the Lao Hmong culture is being retooled into an emergent Hmong-American culture; however, the interdependence & commitment to family that enabled survival in Southeast Asia persist.