Home between two cultures: building cultural identity in Thai-Western families

Abstract

This bachelor’s thesis explores how parents in Thai–Western families support the development of their children’s bicultural identity, focusing on language use, cultural practices and parenting strategies. The study aims to provide insights for parents, educators and professionals working with multicultural families.

The theoretical background of the thesis covered definition of culture, cultural identity, biculturalism, cultural differences between Thailand and Western countries, language, bilingualism, and bicultural parenting practices. This study is grounded in Berry’s acculturation model.

A semi-structured online survey was answered by parents of Thai–Western children, combining quantitative and qualitative questions to capture daily practices, language development, cultural engagement and parenting challenges. Data was analyzed using the qualitative content analysis and it revealed how parents support the weaker culture and language in daily life as well as identified differences and issues parents have faced while raising bicultural children.

The study concludes that majority of the parents find it important to support their children’s identity development into both cultures and are aware of resources and effort required to reach it. Majority of the respondent’s children are bilingual and their both cultures are present in daily life. Most used strategy from Berry’s acculturation model is integration, which aims to maintain both cultures in daily life. Identified challenges consist of language barrier between parents and difficulties in integrating the less dominant culture into everyday life in satisfying amount.