Mainland Chinese Mothers’ Autonomy Support Across Four Caregiving Contexts

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang Su-Russell ◽  
Jean M. Ispa
Keyword(s):  
Autonomy Support ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Chinese Mothers

Mainland Chinese parenting styles and parent–child interaction

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 524-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiyuan Xu ◽  
Jo Ann M. Farver ◽  
Zengxiu Zhang ◽  
Qiang Zeng ◽  
Lidong Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Parenting Styles ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Perceived Parenting ◽  
Authoritarian Parenting ◽  
Child Interaction ◽  
Chinese Mothers ◽  
Chinese Cultural Values ◽  
Parenting Distress

Parenting styles and mother–child interaction were examined with 97 Mainland Chinese mothers (M age 1/4 29.64 years, SD 1/4 3.64) and their young children (M 1/4 24.30 months, SD 1/4 4.57). Mothers completed questionnaires about their parenting styles, orientation to Chinese cultural values, perceived parenting stress, and sources of social support. The regression analyses showed that mothers’ adherence to Chinese values was associated with both authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles. Other characteristics of the family contexts, such as perceived parenting distress, social support, and years of education, also contributed to Chinese mothers’ parenting styles. Mother–child dysfunctional interaction was associated with mothers’ heightened parenting distress, a lack of perceived social support, and perceptions of children's difficultness. Group comparisons revealed that Chinese mothers who had high scores for both authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles adhered most strongly to the Chinese cultural values. The findings suggest that the aspects of families’ eco-cultural settings such as mothers’ endorsement of Chinese cultural values and perceived parenting stress contribute to their parenting styles and interaction with their children.

European American and Mainland Chinese mothers’ responses to aggression and social withdrawal in preschoolers

2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charissa S.L. Cheah ◽  
Kenneth H. Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Causal Attributions ◽  
Social Withdrawal ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Psychological State ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
European American ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Chinese Mothers ◽  
Social Behaviours

The purpose of the present study was to examine European American and Mainland Chinese mothers’ responses to preschoolers’ social behaviours (aggression and social withdrawal) within a cultural framework. Participants were 103 European American mothers from Washington DC, and 100 Mainland Chinese mothers from Beijing and Baoding cities, China. The maternal emotional reactions, causal attributions, socialisation strategies, and socialisation goals that were endorsed in response to these behaviours were targeted. Both groups of mothers reacted with negative emotions to aggression and withdrawal. Consistent with Confucian ideology on child socialisation, Chinese mothers endorsed more external causal attributions, directive socialisation strategies, and child socialisation goals focused on instilling long-term values and group-focused collectivistic ideals. In contrast, European American mothers focused on internal attributions and the more immediate psychological state of the child. The findings were discussed with regard to the importance of distinguishing shy, cautious behaviour from that of the consistent display of social withdrawal among familiar others, and the significance of cultural norms and conventions in the perception and evaluation of social behaviours.

Malicious and benign maternal envy in Chinese childrearing

2021 ◽  
pp. 026540752110176
Author(s):  
Wenqing Zong ◽  
Skyler T. Hawk
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Control ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
Chinese Mothers ◽  
Benign Envy ◽  
Action Tendencies ◽  
Perceived Unfairness ◽  
Made In

Mothers utilize social comparisons to other parents to calibrate evaluations of themselves and their children, and these comparisons might prompt feelings of envy. Envy can either be malicious and destructive, or relatively more benign and constructive. This research examined distinctions between malicious and benign envy among Chinese mothers, differences from related emotions (i.e., resentment and admiration), and themes present in these experiences. An online sample of 152 Mainland Chinese mothers ( Mage = 46.91, SD = 2.26) recalled malicious and benign envy, admiration, and resentment experiences toward other parents and reported associated appraisals, motivations, and action tendencies. Results showed distinctions between malicious and benign maternal envy. Malicious envy included lower perceived control, higher perceived unfairness, and more desire to degrade the other than benign envy. Benevolent feelings toward the envied target characterized benign envy. Both forms of envy were linked to self-improvement motivation. Personal characteristics and achievements of both other parents and other children were prominent themes in mothers’ experiences of various emotions. This research provides insights into how and why Chinese mothers experience different forms of envy, and has implications for research on social comparisons made in parenting contexts.

scholarly journals Cross-cultural comparison of maternal mind-mindedness among Australian and Chinese mothers

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-370
Author(s):  
Qian Dai ◽  
Catherine McMahon ◽  
Ai Keow Lim
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Social Emotional Development ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Cross Cultural Comparison ◽  
Chinese Mothers ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Mind

Evidence suggests that parental mind-mindedness is important for children’s social-emotional development; however, almost all research exploring mind-mindedness has been conducted with families from Western backgrounds. The current study explored cross-cultural differences in mind-mindedness based on observed real-time interactions between urban Australian ( N = 50, M age = 30.34 years, SD = 3.14) and urban mainland Chinese ( N = 50, M age = 29.18 years, SD = 4.14) mothers and their toddlers (Australian: M age = 18.98 months, SD = 0.87; Chinese: M age = 18.50 months, SD = 2.25). Controlling for education, the Australian mothers used a higher proportion of appropriate mind-related comments and were less likely to use non-attuned mind-related comments than their Chinese counterparts, adjusting for total number of comments. Transcript analysis showed that the Australian mothers used more mental state terms referring to desires and preferences than Chinese mothers. Findings are discussed in relation to cultural influences in child-rearing goals, beliefs, and values and the need for cross-cultural validation of the mind-mindedness construct.

scholarly journals On autonomy support : low-income mothers' parenting of young children in contemporary China and the U.S.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Su-Russell Chang
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Autonomy Support ◽  
Well Being ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Parental Autonomy Support ◽  
Chinese Mothers ◽  
Parental Autonomy ◽  
Low Income Mothers ◽  
The U.S

According to self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 2002), autonomy is conceptualized as a sense of volition or agency. Much research indicates that parental autonomy support contributes to children's well-being and academic achievement among middle-class families with school age children or adolescents (Lekes, Gingars, Philippe, Koestner, and Fang, 2010; NICHD, 2004; 2008; Niemiec et al., 2006). Research is scarce in understanding low-income parents' autonomy support and autonomy restriction behaviors with preschool children. It is also unclear whether and how parents support or restrict children's autonomy in various caregiving contexts, such as during mealtimes and pre-academic activities. This study helps address this topic via a mixed method design. Scenario-based interviews were conducted with 40 low-income mothers in the U.S. and China (nU.S. = 20, nChina = 20), followed by administration of Perceived Parental Autonomy Support Scale (P-PASS; Mageau et al., 2015). U.S. mothers and Chinese mothers were similar in terms of level of autonomy support and restriction. In addition, both U.S. and Chinese mothers', levels of autonomy support and restrictions differed across the four caregiving scenarios. The study thus identified how specific caregiving contexts may elicit specific autonomy supportive and autonomy restrictive behaviors by low-income mothers with young children in the U.S. and China.

scholarly journals Cultural Roots of Parenting: Mothers’ Parental Social Cognitions and Practices From Western US and Shanghai/China

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huihua He ◽  
Satoshi Usami ◽  
Yuuki Rikimaru ◽  
Lu Jiang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Parenting Practices ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Social Cognitions ◽  
European American ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Chinese Mothers ◽  
Parenting Goals

Cultural values can be considered as important factors that impact parents’ social cognitions and parenting practices. However, few studies compare specific cultural values of parents and the relationships between cultural values and parenting processes in eastern and western contexts. This study examined the ethnicity differences in mothers’ cultural values, parental social cognitions (child-rearing ideologies and goals), and parenting practices between Mainland Chinese and European American contexts. Predictors of parenting goals and parenting practices were also investigated. Mothers of 4–6 years old children from the western United States (N = 78) and Shanghai/China (N = 96) participated in this study. The results suggested that mothers from Shanghai/China were both more collectivistic and individualistic than mothers from the western United States. Chinese mothers more strongly endorsed training and collectivistic parenting goals, while European American mothers more strongly endorsed individualistic parenting goals for their children. However, no significant difference was found in parenting practices for both groups of mothers. For both ethnic groups, in general, mothers’ cultural values have small but significant impact on their parenting processes. The prediction of cultural values and parenting goals on parenting practices were also different for both ethnicity groups. Although Chinese mothers were higher on both individualism and collectivism, their collectivistic values were more important in predicting parental social cognitions.

Associations Between Informal Caregivers’ Burden and Educational Level

GeroPsych ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Oedekoven ◽  
Katja Amin-Kotb ◽  
Paul Gellert ◽  
Klaus Balke ◽  
Adelheid Kuhlmey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Support Services ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Autonomy Support ◽  
Population Survey ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Informal Caregivers ◽  
Loss Of Self ◽  
Perceived Burden ◽  
Result Show ◽  
Care Situation

Abstract. We investigated the association between the education of informal caregivers’ (IC) and their physical and mental burden. We hypothesized that better-educated IC would have more resources available to manage the care situation and as a result show lower perceived burden. We conducted a population survey of 6,087 German residents aged 18+ years, 966 of whom reported to be IC. Results show that IC felt more often mentally than physically burdened. In the multivariate analyses, higher-educated IC did not have lower odds of feeling physically burdened than lower-educated IC, though they did have increased odds of feeling mentally burdened. The higher perceived mental burden of higher-educated IC may be related to fear of loss of self-fulfilment and autonomy. Support services should consider the mental burden of higher-educated IC and tailor their interventions accordingly.

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