Culturally Competent Practice
Understanding Asian Family Values

Introduction
Buddhism
Confucianism
Taoism
Responding with Cultural Competence

INTRODUCTION

Cultural competence is the ability to provide services effectively to people of all cultures, races, ethnic backgrounds, and religions in a way that recognizes, values, affirms, and respects the worth of individuals and protects and preserves their dignity. But to respond respectfully and effectively to people of different cultural backgrounds, service providers must first understand the widely differing cultures of the people they serve. In this issue, Children's Voice begins a three-part series on understanding the cultural values of Asian American, African American, and Latino families.

Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing cultural groups in the United States. The Asian population is diverse, covering a range of ethnicities, cultures, and languages. Asian Americans vary in terms of immigrations and refugee experiences, acculturation levels, and socioeconomic levels.

Despite this great diversity, practitioners working with children and families should be aware of some of the common values among Asian Americans and take them into consideration when working with Asian families. These values stem from principles in three main Eastern philosophies: Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

BUDDHISM

Buddhism provides a spiritual structure for many Asians. Buddhists view time as circular rather than linear. Many Asians believe in the concepts of reincarnation and karma. Simply stated, karma refers to the notion that what happens to you in this life is due to your behaviors and actions in your past life, and your behaviors and actions in this life will dictate what will happen to you in the next.

Because of this belief, many Asians will endure their pain and suffering in this life in acceptance of their fate. Often, this may leave a person little motivation to change. Successfully using the concept that one's actions impact one's next life may help practitioners to create motivation for change in someone who previously had none.

CONFUCIANISM

A major principle of Confucianism is filial piety. This notion defines specific rules of conduct in social relationships and places great importance on the family. Several key concepts follow from the principle of filial piety:

• Family roles are highly structured, hierarchical, male-dominated, and paternally oriented.
  
  
• The welfare and integrity of the family are of great importance. The individual is expected to submerge or repress emotions, desires, behaviors, and individual goals to further the family welfare and to maintain its reputation. The individual is obligated to save face so as to not bring shame onto the family. The incentive, therefore, is to keep problems within the family.
  
  
• Interdependency is valued and stems from the strong sense of obligation to the family. This concept influences relationships among family members. The family provides support and assistance for each individual member; in turn, individual members provide support and assistance for the entire family. These relationships, interactions, and obligations are lifelong; and the goal of individual members is not necessarily autonomy and independence. This concept is critical to understanding Asian families, and service providers should avoid applying Western labels such as "codependency" and "enmeshment" when observing normal family functioning dictated by cultural values and beliefs.

TAOISM

Taoism defines one's relationship with nature. According to this philosophy, maintaining harmony and balance with nature is important to one's spiritual well-being. The goal of many of the traditional healing practices, such as herbal medicine, acupuncture, coining, and cupping, is to restore this delicate balance. In Asian families, this concept extends to maintaining harmony in social relationships. Because of this, practitioners may observe that:

• Families and individual family members may seek to avoid conflict and confrontation with others.
  
  
• An individual may appear passive, indifferent, or indecisive. The person may fear that taking the initiative could lead to disagreement or conflict.
  
  
• The individual may be overtly compliant and agreeable when, in fact, he or she disagrees with the other person.

RESPONDING WITH CULTURAL COMPETENCE

These principles supply a framework for understanding many of the Asian families with whom child welfare practitioners may work. Remember that these are generalizations; not all Asian Americans hold these values, and most Asians do not consciously follow these principles. Rather, they have become ingrained in broader family values and practices that have formed over centuries.

Service providers should integrate these concepts into their work with Asian Americans. The following suggestions will help child welfare practitioners begin providing culturally competent services for Asian American families.

• When assessing Asian American families, practitioners should gather information regarding specific families' ethnic backgrounds, languages, immigration and refugee experiences, acculturation levels, and community support systems.
  
  
• Develop trust by establishing and adhering to rules of social conduct and proper social interaction.
  
  
• Attempt to maintain and, if appropriate, reestablish traditional family structures according to cultural norms. Respect the family hierarchy.
  
  
• Use extended family members for support systems; lines between nuclear families and extended families are not as rigid in Asian families as they are in Western culture.
  
  
• Allow families and their individual members opportunities to save face whenever possible.
  
  
• Avoid creating situations that may lead to conflict and confrontation. Rather, use indirect methods of communication, when appropriate, to make a point.
  
  
• Because Asians prefer to keep problems within the family, maintaining confidentiality is critical. Families must be assured that their problems will not become public knowledge.
  
  
• Service providers must be active and offer tangible interventions for Asian Americans. Passivity in the worker may be viewed as lack of expertise and authority. Many Asian American families are seeking concrete, tangible solutions to their problems and are uncomfortable with process-and insight-oriented strategies.

This article cannot provide all the knowledge and skills necessary to be culturally competent with Asian Americans. Hopefully, however, it will supply some beginning strategies in working with Asian American families and children. Remember that Asian Americans comprise a diverse group of people who should be assessed individually when developing appropriate intervention strategies. Cultural competence starts with sensitivity and appreciation for diversity and integrates acquired knowledge of cultures with practice skills and techniques. Begin integrating some of these concepts regarding Asian values into your service delivery.