The research looks into how body language and facial expressions between adults can be misinterpreted, leaving the child to fill a gap they didn't expect.
They call it "emotion brokering."
"This is something that when we talk to these children from first and second-generation immigrant families, they know it," UC Merced developmental psychology Professor Eric Walle said. "They didn't know what it was called, but they grew up doing this, and now we are finally able to tap into that and learn about that experience as well as how it impacts their development."
Graduate student Sivenesi Subramoney says researching a topic that has not been explored before has been challenging but rewarding.
"The more we got into it, the more we realized that we need to kind of understand how it impacts people and how it affects their lives and we have gone that direction with the research," UC Merced Graduate student Sivenesi Subramoney said.
Along with Subramoney, professors Eric Walle, Alexandra Main, and Dalia Magaña are collaborating in the research.
Hundreds of students at the university took part in the initial survey, helping with the findings.
"A lot of our students, here at UC Merced, are doing this cultural brokering and translating emotions for their family members and it can be both a positive and challenging experience," UC Merced developmental psychology Professor Alexandra Main
Their findings were published this Spring in the American Psychological Association journal.
"I think understanding those perspectives of our children and those families as well as what we can do to bridge that so the child isn't having to do all the negotiating between the dominate and the heritage culture," Walle said.
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