The impact of immigration on a family's life cycle is discussed from the perspective of general family systems theory. Immigration creates a stress upon normal developmental life stages. In adapting to a new environment and culture, the immigrant family unit struggles with the forces of morphostasis and morphogenesis to maintain a balance between the tension of individual growth and systemic maturation. Specific issues of clinical significance commonly experienced by immigrant Chinese Americans at various stages of their family life cycle are presented along with case illustrations.
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Hong et al. (1993) studied this question.