Korea's Future and Filial Piety Culture

Living up to Parental Expectations, Psychological Separation, and Life Satisfaction

“…In addition to considering client acculturation levels, cultural backgrounds, and perceptions of relationships with parents and families, therapists should also seek to understand the unique characteristics of parent-child relationships in East Asian cultures. Although the LPEI is not designed to assess “positive” parental attention or parental support, in the parental relationships idealized by collectivistic cultures, parents play the “good enough parent” by loving their children and passing on wisdom, while children act according to filial piety and comply with parental requests (Lee, 2012). However, Therapists with a limited understanding of East Asian societies might erroneously think that collectivistic cultures only focus on strictly hierarchical authoritarian relationships (Cho, 2007) that might result in parent-child relationships in which authoritarian parents issue orders and children merely conform.…”