There are many different levels of adaptation to the American culture among Chinese-American families. In particular, it is hardest for first-generation Chinese-Americans and second-generation Chinese-Americans to adapt because of the great disparity between Anglo-Saxon values and traditional Chinese values.  It is mostly in the first and second-generation Chinese-Americans that the adaptation to American culture occurs; with children who are third generation or older, the family usually has already found a good balance between Anglo-Saxon values and traditional Chinese values.

             First-generation Chinese immigrants’ families had some very identifiable patterns in family relations, according to Sheldon X. Zhang in his article “Family and Culture in the Control of the Delinquent Chinese Boy in America.”  These families typically had “multiple generations living under one roof” and divorces and remarriages were much less common.  However, Chinese-American families with second-generation, third-generation, etc. parents do not follow these trends nearly as much.  These families have more or less adapted themselves to America, living in typical nuclear households and not scorning divorce and remarriage the way the traditional Chinese families did.

            Second-generation Chinese-Americans have the hardest time adapting to American because of the “intergenerational conflict with their parents who adhere…to a more traditional culture” according to Benson Tong in her book The Chinese Americans.  While first-generation Chinese immigrants find American life hard, they are typically set in their ways and do not have the identity crises many second-generation.  Second-generation Chinese-Americans were constantly pulled in two directions at home and at school: in the household, describes Tong, they were told to “defer to filial piety and the authority of elders” but simultaneously at school these Chinese-Americans were taught about values “including equal rights and personal freedoms.”  Because, describes Tong, “many [second-generation Chinese-Americans] felt the two cultures [the American and Chinese ones] were worlds apart,” they were constantly conflicted, and especially since “cultural pluralism had yet to make its mark in popular consciousness, a synthesis of both [cultures] was not an option” for second-generation Chinese-Americans.  Many second-generation Chinese-Americans typically embrace “the American side of their identity” until late adolescence, describes Tong.  After adolescence, when second-generation Chinese-American kids have gained maturity, they become more interested in their heritage and culture and find ways to reconcile the seemingly opposing cultures.  For example, Chinese-American women, Tong notes, “expect special courtesies from men,” a typical Anglo-Saxon value that women hold, “but give high priority to achievements in educational and intellectual areas,” a typical Chinese value, yet “are not willing to be subservient in marital relationships,” which definitely reflects the Anglo-Saxon value of equality.  These women have found a way to incorporate both traditional Anglo-Saxon and Chinese values into their lives.  Thus, when second-generation Chinese-Americans become parents, their children are brought up with a balanced view of the cultures, as opposed to being taught one way at home and being taught another at school.  Therefore, Chinese-American families with second-generation, third-generation, etc. parents will have adapted a lot to American culture.