The Impact of Generational Assimilation and Dechurching on Chinese Immigrant Diaspora Parents

Authors

  • Matthew Todd CLIMB Intercultural Society, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29357/2789-1577.2025.23.2.4

Keywords:

acculturation, diaspora immigrants, generational assimilation

Abstract

The study aimed to identify how Chinese Canadian, immigrant, Christian parents are impacted when their second-generation children abandon Chinese churches and often the Christian faith as well. The research involved eighty-four interdenominational participants drawn from clergy and parents. A qualitative research design with mixed methods was conducted in three phases, using open-ended surveys, rating scales, and focus groups. The goal was to analyze and quantify impacts and propose strategies to support affected parents. The data show that parents are variously impacted emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, and socially. The top three negative effects on parents include blaming the church, self-blame, and silent suffering. The Silent Exodus and its impact on parents weaken the mission of the church. The significance of the research is that it offers recommendations that can help fulfill the mission of the church. These recommendations will empower parents by equipping them to cope with the impacts, improving churches’ caring ministries, and destigmatizing the blame that attaches to parents because of the shame culture.

References

  1. Arnett, Jeffrey Jensen. “Emerging Adulthood: A Theory of Development from the Late Teens Through the Twenties.” American Psychologist, 55 (5) (2000): 469–480.
  2. Barna Group. “How Concerned Are Christian Parents About Their Children’s Faith Formation?” (2022). https://www.barna.com/research/christian-parents-concerns/.
  3. Cao, Nanlai, and Lin LiJun. “Contextualizing Transnational Christianity: A Relational Approach.” Religions, 15 (4) (2024): https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15/4/510.
  4. Chen, Carolyn, and Jerry Z. Park. “Pathways of Religious Assimilation: Second-Generation Asian Americans’ Religious Retention and Religiosity.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 58 (3) (2019): 666–688.
  5. Davis, Jim, and Michael Graham. The Great Dechurching. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2023.
  6. Falewicz, Adam, Dariusz Krok, Ewa Telka and Malgorzata Szczesniak. “Religious Deconversion and Well-being among Emerging Adults. Mediating and the Role of Oversexualization and Body Image.” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion (2025): 1–23.
  7. Gemar, Adam. “Parental Influence and Intergenerational Transmission of Religious Belief, Attitudes, and Practices: Recent Evidence from the United States.” Religions, vol. 14 (11) (2023): 1–17. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/11/1373.
  8. Hackett, Conrad. “How Religion Declines Around the World.” Pew Research Center (2025). https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/09/02/how-religion-declines-around-the-world/.
  9. Kinser, Jolene. “Chinese Christians Have Conflicted Feelings About Saving Face.” Christianity Today (May 3, 2024): https://www.christianitytoday.com/2024/05/chinese-culture-saving-losing-face-christianity/.
  10. Legault-Leclair, Jacob. “The Family Transmission of religion in Canada: An intergenerational approach to religious socialization.” Studies in Religion, vol. 54 (2) (2025): 216–241.
  11. Lesage, Kirsten A., Maliki E. Ghossainy, Rebekah A. Richert, and Kathleen Corriveau. “Social learning and Religion.” Oxford Handbook of Cultural Evolution, Jamid J. Tehranit, Jeremy Kendal and Rachel L. Kendel (eds). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2025: 615–630.
  12. Liw, Lina, Ayse Ciftci, and Taewon Kim. “Cultural Values, Shame and Guilt, and Expressive Suppression as Predictors of Depression.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations, vol 89 (2022): 90–99.
  13. Moesker, Anja, De Muynck, Bram De, and Ronelle Sonnenberg. “‘What Else Could We Have Done?’: Parents’ Experience of Their Children’s Church Disaffiliation in Four Dutch Conservative Reformed Congregations.” International Journal of Practical Theology, vol. 29 (1) (2025): 99-118. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijpt-2024-0020.
  14. Molintas, Henrik. “Solving the ‘Silent Exodus’ From Churches.” Lifeway research (Sep. 17, 2021): https://research.lifeway.com/2021/09/17/solving-the-silent-exodus-from-churches/.
  15. Mu, Kun. “Faith and Community Building in Diaspora: An Ethnographic Study of a Chinese Christian church in Canada” (M.A. thesis, University of Western Ontario, 2025).
  16. Petts, Richard J. “Parental Religiosity and Youth Religiosity: Variations by Family Structure.” Sociology of Religion (2014): 1–26.
  17. Pew Research. “Religion Among Asian Americans” (Oct. 11, 2023). https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/10/11/religion-among-asian-americans/.
  18. Ramadhani, Jihan Medina, and Cipto Wardoyo. “Tradition, Family Issue, and Educational Values in a Chinese-Canadian Living in Toronto: Analysis on Turning Red.” Journal of English Education Forum, 5 (1) (2025): 1–6.
  19. Sohn, Ezra. “Attitudes of Asian American Christians Towards the Ethnic Churches They Left” (D. Min., Alliance Theological Seminary, May 2017): 1–132.
  20. Smith, Christian. “Why Religion Went Obsolete: Not by Secularization Alone.” Church Life Journal (April 8, 2025): https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/why-religion-went-obsolete-not-by-secularization-alone/.
  21. Snelgrove, John, Natalie Chan, and Hui Kar Yan Alison. “Why Hong Kong Millennial Christians Switch from Chinese Local Churches to International Churches: A Qualitative Study.” Missiology: An International Review, 49 (4) (2021): 332–347. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00918296211019006 .
  22. Todd, Matthew R.S. “The Impact of Assimilation upon Chinese Canadian Mennonite Brethren Immigrant Churches.” Anabaptist Witness Journal, vol 10 (2) (November 2023): 65–88.
  23. Tran, Huu Dat and Pham Phuong Uyen Diep. “Me, myself, and I: Self-presentation, self-esteem, and uses and gratifications on Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok, First Monday, vol. 30 (3) (2025): 1–17. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13711.
  24. Wiebe, Glenda B., Barbara Pesut, David R. Kuhl, and Thomas Heilke. “‘I Want Them to Question. I Just Didn’t Want Them to Question the Faith!’ Parents’ Experiences of an Adult Child’s Religious Deconversion from a Protestant Evangelical Tradition.” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion (2025): 1–16.
  25. Wink, Paul, and Michele Dillon. “Spiritual Development across the Adult Life Course: Findings from a Longitudinal Study.” Journal of Adult Development, vol. 9, no. 1 (2002): 79–92.
  26. Wong, Tracy K., and Chloe A. Hamza. “Online Self-Presentation, Self-Concept Clarity, and Depressive Symptoms: A Within-Person Examination.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 54 (2024): 997–1013.
  27. Zammit, Isabelle, and Laura K. Taylor. “Stage 2 Registered Report: Parent and Children’s Religiosity in Early Childhood: Implications.” The International Journal of Psychology and Religion (2024): 1–23.
  28. Zhang, Jing. “Understanding the Concept of Shame in the Chinese Culture.” NYS Child Welfare / Child Protective Services Training Institute 4 (2015): 1–2. https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=cwcpstriaininginstitute.
Issue Cover

Downloads

Published

2025-12-18

How to Cite

Todd, Matthew. 2025. “The Impact of Generational Assimilation and Dechurching on Chinese Immigrant Diaspora Parents”. Theological Reflections: Eastern European Journal of Theology 23 (2):66-84. https://doi.org/10.29357/2789-1577.2025.23.2.4.

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 2 (2025): Theological Reflections: Eastern European Journal of Theology

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Matthew Todd

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

All articles published in the Journal are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

By submitting an article for publication in Theological Reflections: Eastern European Journal of Theology the author grants the editors the right to publish the article and distribute it in electronic and print form.

The author reserves all copyrights and the right to use the materials of the article in whole or in part for educational purposes, to write his own dissertations, to prepare abstracts, conference reports, oral presentations, etc., as well as post electronic copies of articles (including the final electronic version downloaded from the journal’s official website) on non-commercial web-resources without the consent of the editorial board and founders.