Effects of Life Stress,Social Support,and Cultural Norms on Parenting Styles Among Mainland Chinese,European Canadian,and Chinese Canadian Immigrant Mothers

Abstract

The effects of life stress, social support, cultural beliefs, and social norms on parenting styles were examined for mainland Chinese (MC), Chinese Canadian (CC) and European Canadian (EC) mothers of 2- to 6-year-old children. Authoritarian parenting increased with stress and traditional parenting beliefs and decreased with social support. EC mothers used less authoritarian parenting than either CC or MC mothers. This cultural difference was fully mediated by stress. For authoritative parenting, there was a country of residence effect, which was not mediated; MCs were less authoritative than either CCs or ECs. All mothers were more authoritative when less stressed, when they had lower traditional childrearing beliefs, and when they were more individualist. The results suggest the importance of the immediate social environment in influencing these cultural differences.

Keywords

parenting styles Chinese families stress social support cross-cultural differences

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abidin

R. R.

(1995). Manual for the Parenting Stress Index. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

Ainsworth

M. D.

Bell

S. M.

Stayton

D. J.

(1972). Individual differences in the development of some attachment behaviors. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 18, 123-143.

Armstrong

M. I.

Birnie-Lefcovitch

Ungar

M. T.

(2005). Pathways between social support, family well being, quality of parenting, and child resilience: What we know. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 14, 269-281.

Baron

R. M.

Kenny

D. A.

(1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.

Barth

R. P.

Schinke

S. P.

(1984). Enhancing the social supports of teenage mothers. Social Casework: The Journal of Contemporary Social Work, 65, 523-531.

Baumrind

(1967). Child care practices anteceding three patterns of preschool behavior. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 75, 43-88.

Beck

A. T.

Steer

R. A.

Brown

G. K.

(1996). Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.

Becker

W. C.

(1964). Consequences of different kinds of parental discipline. In Hoffman

M. L.

Hoffman

L. W.

(Eds.), Review of child development research (Vol. 1, pp. 169-208). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Belsky

(1981). Early human experience: A family perspective. Developmental Psychology, 17, 3-23.

10.

Berry

J. W.

(1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46, 5-34.

11.

Bowlby

(1969). Attachment and loss (Vol. II and Vol. III). New York: Basic Books.

12.

Bronfenbrenner

(1961). Some familial antecedents of responsibility and leadership in adolescents. In Petrullo

Brown

R. L.

(Eds.), Leadership and interpersonal behavior (pp. 239-270). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

13.

Bronfenbrenner

(1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

14.

Canadian Task Force on Mental Health Issues Affecting Immigrants and Refugees. (1988). After the door has been opened: Mental health issues affecting immigrants. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Minister of Supply and Services.

15.

Chao

R. K.

(1994). Beyond parental control and authoritarian parenting style: Understanding Chinese parenting through the cultural notion of training. Child Development, 65, 1111-1119.

16.

Chao

R. K.

(1996). Chinese and European American mothers’ beliefs about the role of parenting in children’s school success. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27, 403-423.

17.

Chen

Dong

Zhou

(1997). Authoritative and authoritarian parenting practices and social and school performance in Chinese children. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 21(4), 855-873.

18.

Chen

Liu

Chen

(2000). Maternal authoritative and authoritarian attitudes and mother-child interactions and relationships in urban China. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24(1), 119-126.

19.

Cohen

Wills

T. A.

(1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 310-357.

20.

Crnic

K. A.

Friedrich

W. N.

Greenberg

M. T.

(1983). Adaptation of families with mentally retarded children: A model of stress, coping, and family ecology. Mental Deficiency, 88(2), 125-138.

21.

Crnic

Low

(2002). Everyday stresses and parenting. In Bornstein

M. H.

(Eds.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 5. Practical issues in parenting (pp. 243-267). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

22.

Cutrona

C. E.

Suhr

J. A.

(1992). Controllability of stressful events and satisfaction with spouse support behaviors. Communication Research, 19, 154-174.

23.

Darling

Steinberg

(1993). Parenting style as context: An integrative model. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 487-496.

24.

Deater-Deckard

Dodge

K. A.

(1997). Externalizing behavior problems and discipline revisited: Nonlinear effects and variation by culture, context, and gender. Psychological Inquiry, 8(3), 161-175.

25.

Dornbusch

S. M.

Ritter

P. L.

Leiderman

P. H.

Roberts

D. F.

(1987). The relation of parenting style to adolescent school performance. Child Development, 58, 1244-1257.

26.

Dowrick

Casey

Dalgard

Hosman

Lehtinen

Vazquez-Barquero

J.L.

Wilkinson

(1998). The outcome of depression international network (ODIN). Background, methods and field trials. British Journal Psychiatry, 172, 359-363.

27.

Farver

M. J.

Bhadha

R. B.

Narang

(2007). Ethnic identity, acculturation, parenting beliefs, and adolescent adjustment: A comparison of Asian Indian and European American families. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 53(2), 184-215.

28.

Glick

J. E.

(1999). Economic support from and to extended kin: A comparison of Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants. International Migration Review, 33, 745-765.

29.

Gottlieb

B. H.

(1983). Social support strategies. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

30.

Greenberger

O’Neil

(1993). Spouse, parent, worker: Role commitments and role-related experiences in the construction of adults’ well-being. Developmental Psychology, 29, 181-197.

31.

Han

W. J.

(2008). The academic trajectories of children of immigrants and their school environments, Development Psychology, 44, 1572-1590.

32.

Hao

L. X.

(2003). Private support and public assistance for immigrant families. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 65, 36-51.

33.

Harwood

R. L.

Miller

J. G.

Irizarry

N. L.

(1995). Culture and attachment: Perceptions of the child in context. New York: The Guilford Press.

34.

Helgeson

V. S.

(2003). Social support and quality of life. Quality of Life Research, 12(1), 25-31.

35.

D. Y. F.

(1994). Cognitive socialization in Confucian Heritage cultures. In Greenfield

P. M.

Cocking

R. R.

(Eds.), Cross-cultural roots of minority child development (pp. 285-313). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

36.

Humphrey

H. J.

(1988). Children and stress. New York: AMS Press.

37.

Jose

P. E.

Hunstinger

C. S.

Hunstinger

P. R.

Liaw

F. R.

(2000). Parental values and practices relevant to young children’s social development in Taiwan and the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 31, 677-702.

38.

Kim

H. S.

Sherman

D. K.

Taylor

S. E.

(2006). Pursuit of comfort and pursuit of harmony: Culture, relationships, and social support seeking. Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 32(12), 1595-1607.

39.

Kochanska

Kuczynski

Radke-Yarrow

(1989). Correspondence between mothers’ self-reported and observed child-rearing practices. Child Development, 60, 56-63.

40.

Landry

S. H.

Assel

M. A.

Smith

K. E.

(2002). How do mothers’ childrearing stories, stress and parenting affect children’s behavioural outcomes? Care, Health and Development, 28(5), 359-368.

41.

Larsen

R. J.

Buss

D. M.

(2002). Personality psychology: Domains of knowledge about human nature. New York: McGraw-Hill.

42.

Leinonen

J. A.

(2002). Social support and the quality of parenting under economic pressure and workload in Finland: The role of family structure and parental gender. Family Psychology, 17(3), 409-418.

43.

Leinonen

J. A.

Solantaus

T. S.

Punamaki

R. L.

(2003). Social support and the quality of parenting under economic pressure and workload in Finland: The role of family structure and parental gender. Journal of Family Psychology, 17(3), 409-418.

44.

LeVine

R. A.

(1988). Parental behavior in diverse societies. In LeVine

R. A.

Miller

P. M.

West

M. M.

(Eds.), New directions for child development, No. 40 (pp. 3-12). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

45.

Lin

C.- Y. C.

V. R.

(1990). A comparison of child-rearing practices among Chinese, immigrant Chinese, and Caucasian-American parents. Child Development, 61, 429-433.

46.

Maccoby

E. E.

(1980). Social development: Psychological growth and the parent-child relationship. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

47.

McCollum

J. A.

(1997). Ratings of parent-infant interaction: Raising questions of cultural validity. Early Childhood Special Education, 17(4), 494-519.

48.

McGillicuddy-De Lisi

A. V.

Sigel

I. E.

(1995). Parental beliefs. In Bornstein

M. H.

(Ed.), Handbook of parenting, Vol. 3: Status and social conditions of parenting (pp. 333-358). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

49.

Mills

Allan

(1992). Play therapy with the maltreated child: Impact upon aggressive and withdrawn patterns of interaction. Play Therapy, 1(1), 1-20.

50.

Nally

Eisenberg

Harris

J. D.

(1991). Consistency and change in maternal child-rearing practices and values: A longitudinal study. Child Development, 62, 190-198.

51.

Nisbett

E. R.

(2003). The geography of thought: How Asians and Westerners think differently and why. New York: The Free Press.

52.

Okagaki

Bingham

G. E.

(2005). Parents’ social cognitions and their parenting behaviors. In Luster

Okagaki

(Eds.), Parenting: An ecological perspective (2nd ed., pp. 3-34). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

53.

Oyserman

Coon

H. M.

Kemmelmeier

(2002). Rethinking individualism and collectivism: Evaluation of theoretical assumptions and meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 3-72.

54.

Pan

Chaffee

S. H.

Chu

G. C.

(1984). To see ourselves: Comparing traditional Chinese and American cultural values. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

55.

Roberts

G. C.

Block

J. H.

Block

(1984). Continuity and change in parents’ child rearing practices. Child Development, 55, 586-597.

56.

Robinson

C. C.

Mandleco

Olsen

S. F.

Hart

C. H.

(1995). Authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting practices: Development of a new measure. Psychological Reports, 77, 819-830.

57.

Sameroff

(1975). Transactional models in early social relations. Human Development, 18(1-2), 65-79.

58.

Short

H. K.

Johnston

(1997). Stress, maternal distress, and children’s adjustment following immigration: The buffering role of social support. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65(3), 494-503.

59.

Stevens

J. H. J.

(1988). Social support, locus of control, and parenting in three low income groups of mother: Black teenagers, Black adults, and White adults. Child Development, 59, 635-642.

60.

Tabachnick

B. G.

Fidell

L. S.

(2001). Using multivariate statistics (4th ed.). New York: Harper and Row.

61.

Taylor

S. E.

Welch

Kim

H. S.

Sherman

D. K.

(2007). Cultural differences in the impact of social support on psychological and biological stress responses. Psychological Science, 8, 831-837.

62.

Tinsley

B. J.

Parke

R. D.

(1987). Grandparents as interactive and social support agent for families with young infants. Aging Human Development, 25(4), 259-277.

63.

Triandis

H. C.

(2001). Individualism-collectivism and personality. Journal of Personality, 69, 907-924.

64.

Triandis

H. C.

Gelfand

M. J.

(1998). Converging measurement of horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 118-128.

65.

Triandis

H. C.

Leung

Villareal

M. J.

Clark

F. L.

(1985). Allocentric versus idiocentric tendencies: Convergent and discriminant validation. Journal of Research in Personality, 19, 395-415.

66.

Tsai

J. L.

Ying

Y. W.

Lee

(2000). The meaning of “being Chinese” and “being American”: Variation among Chinese American young adults. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 31, 302-332.

67.

Uchida

Kitayama

Mesquita

Reyes

J. A. S.

Morling

(2008). Is perceived emotional support beneficial? Well-being and health in independent and interdependent cultures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 741-754.

68.

Vega

A. W.

Kolody

Valle

Weir

(1991). Social networks, social support, and their relationship to depression among immigrant Mexican women. Human Organization, 50(2), 153-164.

69.

Wang

(2006). China’s urban and rural old age security system: Challenges and options. China & World Economy, 14(1), 102-116.

70.

Wang

S. G.

(2004). Chinese immigrants in Canada: Their changing composition and economic performance. In Doucet

(Ed.), CERIS Policy Matters Series (pp. 1-7). Toronto: The Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS).