Filial piety is an important cultural construct in the lives and behaviors of Chinese emerging adults and may act as a moderating factor for the relationship between perceived parenting practices and indices of adjustment. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not filial piety moderates the influence of psychologically controlling and warm parenting behaviors on internalizing problems, self-esteem, and risk behaviors. Using a sample of Chinese college students (N = 612), results from regression analyses indicated that filial piety moderated the relationship between psychological control and self-esteem, in that psychological control predicted lower self-esteem at high and moderate levels of filial piety values but was not related at low filial piety values. The discussion focuses on the possibility that filial piety may exacerbate the conflict between psychologically controlling tactics and autonomy.
ArnettJ. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480. doi:10.1037//0003-066X.55.5.469
2.
ArnettJ. J. (2015). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
3.
BarberB. K. (1996). Parental psychological control: Revisiting a neglected construct. Child Development, 67, 3296–3319.
4.
BuchananC. M.MaccobyE. E.DornbuschS. M. (1991). Caught between parents: Adolescents’ experience in divorced homes. Child Development, 62, 1008–1029. doi:10.2307/1131149
5.
ChenW.-W. (2014). The relationship between perceived parenting style, filial piety, and life satisfaction in Hong Kong. Journal of Family Psychology, 28, 308–314. doi:10.1037/a0036819
6.
GhazarianS. R.SuppleA. J.PlunkettS. W. (2008). Familism as a predictor of parent-adolescent relationships and developmental outcomes for adolescents in Armenian American immigrant families. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 17, 599–613. doi:10.1007/s10826-007-9177-7
7.
GivertzM.SegrinC. (2014). The association between overinvolved parenting and young adults’ self-efficacy, psychological entitlement, and family communication. Communication Research, 4, 1111–1136. doi:10.1177/0093650212456392
8.
HoD. Y.-F. (1994). Filial piety, authoritarian moralism and cognitive conservatism in Chinese societies. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 120, 349–365. doi:10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004
9.
HuX.WangY. (2013). LGB identity among young Chinese: The influence of traditional culture. Journal of Homosexuality, 60, 667–684. doi:10.1080/00918369.2013.773815
10.
KimB. S. K.AtkinsonD. R.YangP. H. (1999). The Asian Values Scale: Development, factor analysis, validation, and reliability. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 46, 342–352. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.46.3.342
11.
KoepkeS.DenissenJ. J. A. (2012). Dynamics of identity development and separation-individuation in parent-child relationships during adolescence and emerging adulthood—A conceptual integration. Developmental Review, 32, 67–88. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2012.01.001
12.
LuyckxK.SoenensB.VansteenkisteM.GoossensL.BerzonskyM. D. (2007). Parental psychological control and dimensions of identity formation in emerging adulthood. Journal of Family Psychology, 21, 546–550. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.21.3.546
13.
NeemanJ.HarterS. (1986). Manual for the self-perception profile for college students. Unpublished manuscript, University of Denver, Denver, CO.
14.
NelsonL. J.ChenX. (2007). Emerging adulthood in China: The role of social and cultural factors. Child Development Perspectives, 1, 86–91. doi:10.1111/j.1750-8606.2007.00020.x
15.
NelsonL. J.Padilla-WalkerL. M.ChristensenK. J.EvansC. A.CarrollJ. S. (2011). Parenting in emerging adulthood: An examination of parenting clusters and correlates. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40, 730–743. doi:10.1007/s10964-010-9584-8
16.
QiX. (2015). Filial obligation in contemporary China: Evolution of the culture-system. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 45, 141–161. doi:10.1111/jtsb.12052
17.
RothbartM. K.AhadiS. A.EvansD. E. (2000). Temperament and personality: Origins and outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 122–135. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.78.1.122
18.
RudyD.AwongT.LambertM. (2008). Parental psychological control and authoritarianism in Chinese-Canadian and European-Canadian cultural groups: Their meanings and implications for university students’ adjustment. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 39, 471–490.
19.
SoenensB.VansteenkisteM. (2010). A theoretical upgrade of the concept of parental psychological control: Proposing new insights on the basis of self-determination theory. Developmental Review, 30, 74–99. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2009.11.001
SuL. P. (2014). A comparison of contemporary filial piety in rural and non-rural China and Taiwan (master’s thesis). Retrieved from All Theses and Dissertations. (Paper 5725)
22.
TelzerE. H.GonzalesN.FuligniA. J. (2014). Family obligation values and family assistance behaviors: Protective and risk factors for Mexican-American adolescents’ substance use. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 270–283. doi:10.1007/s10964-013-9941-5
23.
TelzerE. H.TsaiK. M.GonzalesN.FuligniA. J. (2015). Mexican American adolescents’ family obligation values and behaviors: Links to internalizing symptoms across time and context. Developmental Psychology, 51, 75–86. doi:10.1037/a0038434
24.
UrryS. A.NelsonL. J.Padilla-WalkerL. M. (2011). Mother knows best: Psychological control, child disclosure, and maternal knowledge in emerging adulthood. Journal of Family Studies, 17, 157–173. doi:10.5172/jfs.2011.17.2.157
25.
WongS. M.LeungA. N.McBride-ChangC. (2010). Adolescent filial piety as a moderator between perceived maternal control and mother-adolescent relationship quality in Hong Kong. Social Development, 19, 187–201. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2008.00523.x
26.
YehK.-H.YiC.-C.TsaoW.-C.WanP.-S. (2013). Filial piety in contemporary Chinese societies: A comparative study of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. International Sociology, 28, 277–296. doi:10.1177/0268580913484345
