Social Pressure and Unfulfilled Dreams Among Chinese and Belgian Parents

Abstract

Chinese parents have been found to use more psychological control toward their children than Western parents. The present study examined whether Chinese, relative to Belgian, parents’ experiences of social pressure to be an achievement-promoting parent and their own unfulfilled dreams could account for this country-level difference in psychologically controlling parenting. In turn, the association of social pressure and unfulfilled dreams with parental psychological control was expected to be accounted for (i.e., mediated) by child-invested contingent self-esteem. In a cross-cultural sample consisting of 412 Chinese (209 mothers and 203 fathers) and 418 Belgian (209 mothers and 209 fathers) parents of 14-year-old adolescents, we found that social pressure and unfulfilled dreams were related positively to child-invested contingent self-esteem which, in turn, was related to psychologically controlling parenting. Moreover, the hypothesized between-country differences in psychologically controlling parenting and child-invested contingent self-esteem were largely explained by between-country differences in parents’ experiences of social pressure and unfulfilled dreams. Findings are discussed in light of the influence of the broader society on parents’ self-worth and parenting practices.