"My Way or Mom's Way?" The Bilingual and Bicultural Self in Hong Kong Chinese Children and Adolescents

Abstract

This study examined the relation of language to the development of a cultural self. Bilingual children ages 8-14 from Hong Kong (N = 125) were interviewed in either English or Chinese. They recalled autobiographical events and described themselves, and indicated their agreement with Chinese interdependent versus Western independent values. Children interviewed in English provided more elaborate and self-focused self-descriptions and memory accounts and endorsed more strongly Western values, compared with children interviewed in Chinese. Furthermore, the endorsement of a cultural belief system mediated the effect of language on self-concept, which, in turn, mediated the effect of language on autobiographical memory. These findings offer new insight into the dynamic relations between language, culture, and the self.