Study of the expression of attitudes on intensive parenting in Russian women

The cultural and ideological shift of the parenting paradigm towards the child-centred approach in upbringing leads to the need to study the phenomenology of intensive parenting (motherhood) in Russian psychology. For the first time, the article has presented the quantitative results of the intensity of the attitudes of intensive parenting in Russian women (as part of the pilot version of the Intensive Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire (IPAQ) methodology testing) (Liss M., Schiffrin H.H., Mackintosh V.H., Miles-McLean H., Erchull M.J., 2013) The study involved 138 women aged 23 to 56 years (M = 38.43) with number of children 1 to 5 (M = 1.93). It was found that the central element in the model of intensive parenting Russian women advocate child-centredness. Differences in the fullness of intense parental attitudes, depending on the age of the mother, are described. The severity of the attitudes to intensive motherhood is rather weakly interconnected with the peculiarities of the life context, and the socio-demographic characteristics of women. The findings can be used to address parental stress, burnout and general life dissatisfaction with individual clients and families.

The Changing Patterns and Determinants of Stay-at-Home Motherhood in Urban China, 1982 to 2015

This paper documents trends in and examines determinants of stay-at-home motherhood in urban China from 1982 to 2015. China once had the world’s leading female labor force participation rate. Since the economic reforms starting from the early 1980s, however, some mothers have been withdrawing from the labor force due to diminished state support, a rise in intensive parenting, and heightened work-family conflicts. Based on data from the 1982, 1990, and 2000 Chinese censuses, the 2005 mini-census, and the 2006–2015 Chinese General Social Survey, we find mothers’ non-employment increased for every educational group and grew at a much faster rate among mothers than it did among fathers, particularly those with small children. Moreover, the negative relationships between mothers’ education and non-employment, and between mothers’ family income and non-employment weakened overtime. This possibly due to women with more established resources can better “afford” the single-earner arrangement and also more emphasize the importance of intensive parenting, than their less resourced counterparts. These findings signal the resurgence of a gendered division of labor in urban China.

Testing the talented child: Direct-to-consumer genetic talent tests in China

One controversial area of direct-to-consumer genetic testing in China is “genetic talent testing” for children. In this study, I show that while experts criticize genetic talent testing as unscientific, the persistence of genetic talent testing is not merely a product of parents’ scientific illiteracy. Instead, genetic talent testing reflects parents’ pragmatic use of technology in response to the parenting pressures in contemporary China. Parents see the results of genetic talent testing as offering an advantage for their children when combined with the intensive parenting strategy of precision education. Drawing on the sociology of testing, I argue how genetic talent testing in China is a product of broader concerns about population quality and can potentially reshape how parents imagine quality children through the theory of multiple intelligences. My study of this “off label” use of direct-to-consumer genetic testing also suggests that scientists need to broaden their imagination of potential misuses of their technologies.

Social class, intensive parenting norms and parental values for children

As the global trend towards both middle- and working-class families raising their children intensively increases, social class differences in parenting beliefs and choices for their children have become more subtle. In light of the proliferation of intensive parenting norms, however, few studies have explored particular mechanisms underlying the subtle class differences linked to parental values. Drawing on in-depth interviews of 51 Hong Kong Chinese parents, this study investigated how parents contended with competing values in socialization, which in turn shaped their parenting choices. Three common values emerged from the interviews – academic excellence, hard work and happiness – showing that the middle and working classes managed their values for children in two different ways, termed here as ‘values coupling’ and ‘values juggling’, respectively. Middle-class parents were able to make their value choices cohesive through a ‘twist’ to reconcile between competing values. However, working-class parents were inclined to ‘drift’ their value choices in the face of unreconciled value tensions as well as structural constraints. Subtle differences in parental values were found to be tied to class position, and contributed to maintaining class inequality and social reproduction.

Intensive Grandmothering? Exploring the Changing Nature of Grandmothering in the Context of Changes to Parenting Culture

This article explores the ways in which the intensification of parenting and the notion of children at risk have influenced grandmothers’ narratives and practices. Interviews with grandmothers who regularly look after their grandchildren, reveal that their practices are framed around the notions of children to be protected, educated and entertained. Such notions reveal that aspects of grandmothers’ roles as protectors, educators, playmates and confidants involved negotiations with parents around the ideal of ‘putting the child first’. The article argues that intensive parenting has influenced grandmothering but the way this is enacted reveals resistance to certain aspects of intensive parenting.