I’ve noticed with Asian teens living in Asian countries, most don’t see the ‘need’ to figure out their identities apart from their parents. There isn’t a period of peer-orientation where life revolves around friends and parents are to be pushed away.
In America, teens more often push boundaries to establish identity and independence.
Nearly every culture recognizes the teenage years as a unique transition between childhood to adulthood, but not every culture recognizes that age group as a time for kids to establish a separate identity from their parents.
Many societies have “coming of age” ceremonies for adolescents as they enter the teenage years, but yet it doesn’t necessarily mean individuating from one’s parents.
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>In America, teens more often push boundaries to establish identity and independence.
Because of this
I wrote a big ol’ answer, but I think this was the whole damn plot of Turning Red and that movie would probably answer this better than I.
Were an individualist society, as opposed to a collectivist one, so it would make sense that people would establish their own identity earlier on.
This is a cultural separation, to be frank. Asian countries tend to believe more in the family lineage raising your children and caring for your elders than Americans. As Americans, we are told to live “The American Dream” and leave our families and toil our entire lives to one day be rich and successful. Because of this, many Americans move across the country to find their “meaning” whereas Asians may only move down the block, or even take over their parent’s home.
American Culture values individualism and self reliance. We instill these values into our children from a young age. Teenage years are when they begin to be able to act upon these values and are allowed to start acting independently, to varying degrees based on family and individuals involved.
Asian cultures in comparison tend to value conformity and acting for the communal or familial good. As such independence is tolerated, but not really promoted and taught to their children.
Probably because teens are marketed to more directly in the US. The whole concept of teenagers was invented in the 50s to market pop culture. Pre war America was a lot more similar to Asia, but still probably more individualist.
It’s allowed and, when done through the correct outlets, actively rewarded.
By the time you finish high school you’re expected to be self directing. Figured out what you want to do and executing on it, whether thay means working, training or going to college.
For that to work, the kid needs to be expressing independent direction more and more as they approach that age.
On the other hand a lot of Asian cultures are very elder oriented where things must meet parent direction or at least approval well into what we would consider your adult working, social and family life. That doesn’t have the same requirement for confidence in self determination. Instread it requires actively reinforcing that your identity belongs, at least in some senses, to your parents.
Tldr; to be “Americans” as we generally conceive it, they need to start practicing by that age. Many younger.
American teens in America were raised in an individualistic society. Asian teens raised in Asia were raised in collectivist societies. There’s nothing more to it than that.
We Americans are encouraged to be independent from our parents, so while some Americans follow in familial traditions, we really don’t have to.
The West values individuals, the East values conformity.
Americans are descendants of people who voluntarily left their families and societies of origin to come here. That’s all you need to know
The US has what is possibly the most individualistic culture on the planet. Many Asian countries are among the most collectivist. So, American teens are much more likely to act as individuals.
It’s an individualistic culture that considers developing an independently-arrived-at worldview part of the growing up process. At least that’s true in theory anyway.
In practice, a lot of teenagers, especially young men, end up just finding someone on the internet to tell them what to think instead of letting their parents tell them what to think.
While I hate to generalize, aren’t a lot of Asian societies very Collectivist driven compared to American societies more Individualistic society? The desire for independence and individualism is what would be fueling this desire to form their own identity and sense of self separate from their parents.
I’m Asian-American. I would say most of it comes from the parents themselves.
American parents will outright tell you that your life is your own, that fun with friends is the most valuable part of your teen years, that you need to leave the house for your own good, and that you each owe each other nothing after you do become a full-fledged adult.
Asian parents will outright tell you that you are never an island, that your investment in your education and future is the most valuable part of your teen years, that you should move back home so that they can take care of your kids, and that they sacrificed everything possible for your sake and were willing to financially support you indefinitely, so in turn you should house and care for them in their old age.
And of course that difference is cultural
Compared to Asian cultures that favor family and collective, Americans are much more individualistic.
There are pros and cons to both
Not asian, but from a culture more focused on collective.
Because in other cultures your identity may not be so relevant as it is in America, and you kind of define yourself as a part of a family unit first and foremost.
American individuality can be crazy, eg putting the elderly in special homes instead of caring about them yourselves is kinda mind boggling.
America has a very individualistic culture
From an outsiders perspective I would say many, if not all Asian culture ms don’t value individuality, as much as they do the collective!
Asian countries Like Japan are very much into pushing The ideals of doing what you were told, keeping your head down, not make waves/bring attention to yourself, etc.
America is the exact opposite!
It’s a normal part of adolescence for all peoples and can only be suppressed or encouraged.
I heard this once and really like it. “Most other countries tell children to be an efficient cog in a larger machine. America tells its children to build a better machine.”
Broadly speaking from what I can tell a lot of Asian countries have a culture of conformity, strong emphasis on respecting tradition, and family. In America there is a strong cultural emphasis on individualism and improvement. Your encouraged to be your own person and to innovate. Neither culture is bad or good it’s just different ways of being raised. Some grow up with a bit of both perspectives if their first or second gen.