ABSTRACT
Using a three-wave longitudinal sample of 108 Chinese American parent-adolescent dyads (Mparent-ageW1 = 45.44 years, 17% fathers; Madolescent-ageW1 = 13.34 years, 50% boys), this study examined the effects of parents' COVID-19-related racial discrimination experiences on adolescents' ethnic identity exploration and anxiety as mediated by parents' awareness of discrimination (AOD) socialization and moderated by parents' anxiety and racial socialization competency (RSC). Parents' racial discrimination experiences in 2020 predicted adolescents' greater ethnic identity exploration or greater anxiety in 2022 via parents' greater use of AOD in 2021, depending on the levels of parents' anxiety and RSC. These findings highlighted individual and contextual factors impacting racial socialization processes in Chinese American families.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Racism , Male , Humans , Adolescent , Female , Socialization , Asian , ParentsABSTRACT
This study aimed to generate localized knowledge by investigating the perceptions and experiences of preadolescent grandchildren and grandparents regarding grandparenting and intergenerational interactions and how these processes were related to the social skills of preadolescents from three ethnic groups in Malaysia. Using a concurrent quantitative-qualitative mixed method research design, Chinese, Malay, and Indian preadolescents (N = 465; ages 9-12 years old; M = 10.27 years; SD = 1.03) from rural areas in Malaysia completed a self-administered quantitative survey; furthermore, 25 grandparents participated in one-on-one interviews. Survey findings showed that preadolescent grandchildren who reported higher grandparental warmth and support had greater social skills, mediated by positive grandparent-grandchildren (GP-GC) relationships. The GP-GC relationship and preadolescent social skills association was stronger for skipped generation compared to three-generation households. Interview findings revealed that grandparents expressed unconditional love and autonomy support in their grandparenting roles by guiding and encouraging their preadolescent grandchildren to make decisions. The GP-GC interactions served as a dynamic force in promoting preadolescents' social skills. By employing a decolonized approach and drawing on the lived experiences of grandparents from three ethnic backgrounds in rural Malaysia, the study provided an understanding of grandparenting practices and their general implications across the three ethnic groups. The interview responses highlighted both commonalities and specificities in grandparenting practices and relationship dynamics shaped by religious, class, and sociocultural dimensions in rural Malaysia.
Subject(s)
Grandparents , Intergenerational Relations , Rural Population , Social Skills , Humans , Malaysia/ethnology , Grandparents/psychology , Intergenerational Relations/ethnology , Male , Child , FemaleABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has made historically rooted anti-Asian racism, xenophobia, and civic activism in the United States highly salient, creating a heightened need for Asian American youth to redress racial injustice through civic engagement. However, little is known about Chinese American adolescents' civic engagement in response to racial discrimination. The present study investigated the age-varying associations between Chinese American adolescents' experiences of COVID-19-related racial discrimination and their political civic engagement at the intersection of race and gender, as well as the moderating roles of ethnic identity affirmation and parental civic socialization in these associations. The participants were 295 10- to 18-year-old Chinese American adolescents (Mage = 14.1 years, SD = 2.2 years; 52% girls) and their parents (Mage = 44.2 years, SD = 6.0 years; 79% mothers). Time-varying effect modeling showed that experiences of racial discrimination were negatively associated with political civic engagement in middle adolescence. This negative association was found only among girls but not boys. High ethnic identity affirmation and parental civic socialization not only buffered Chinese American adolescents against the impact of racial discrimination but even promoted their greater political civic engagement across adolescence. These findings revealed the age trends and important individual and contextual facilitators of Chinese American adolescents' political civic participation in the context of the racialized pandemic of COVID-19, which can inform culturally and developmentally targeted education and intervention efforts that promote the civic development of Chinese American adolescents.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Racism , Social Participation , Adolescent , Adult , Child , Female , Humans , Male , Asian , Pandemics , United States/epidemiology , Middle AgedABSTRACT
This study compared parenting across four non-Western cultures to test cross-cultural commonality and specificity principles in three aspects: measurement properties, parenting normativeness, and their associations with child outcomes. Both mothers and fathers (N = 1509 dyads) with preschool-aged children (M = 5.00 years; 48% girls) from urban areas of four countries (Malaysia, N = 372; China, N = 441; Turkey, N = 402; and Japan, N = 294) reported on four parenting constructs (authoritative, authoritarian, group harmony socialization, and intrusive control) and their sub-dimensions using modified culturally relevant measures. Teachers reported on children's internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behaviors. The commonality principle was supported by two sets of findings: (1) full measurement invariance was established for most parenting constructs and sub-dimensions, except that intrusive control only reached partial scalar invariance, and (2) no variations were found in associations between parenting and any child outcomes across cultures or parent gender at the construct level for all four parenting constructs and at the sub-dimensional level for authoritarian and intrusive control sub-dimensions. The specificity principle was supported by the other two sets of findings: (1) cross-cultural differences in parenting normativeness did not follow the pattern of economic development but yielded culture-specific patterns, and (2) at the sub-dimensional level, the authoritative parenting and group harmony socialization sub-dimensions were differently associated with child outcomes across cultures and/or parent gender. The findings suggested that examining specific dimensions rather than broad parenting constructs is necessary to reflect cultural specificities and nuances. Our study provided a culturally-invariant instrument and a three-step guide for future parenting research to examine cross-cultural commonalities/specificities. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: This is the first study to use an instrument with measurement invariance across multiple non-Western cultures to examine the commonality and specificity principles in parenting. Measurement invariance was achieved across cultures for authoritative and authoritarian parenting, group harmony socialization, intrusive control, and their sub-dimensions, supporting the commonality principle. Cross-cultural differences in parenting normativeness did not follow the pattern of economic development but yielded culture-specific patterns, supporting the specificity principle. Both commonalities and specificities were manifested in associations between parenting and child outcomes across cultures.
ABSTRACT
A crucial step for validating the utility of an immersive virtual reality (iVR) buffet to study eating behavior is to determine whether variations in food characteristics such as portion size (PS) are relevant predictors of food selection in an iVR buffet. We tested whether manipulating PS in an iVR buffet affects the weight of food selected, and whether this response to PS is similar to participants' measured intake when PS varies at laboratory meals. In a randomized crossover design, 91 adults (18-71 y; 64 females; BMI = 25.3 ± 5.7) used their iVR remote to select lunch and dinner portions from an iVR buffet before consuming a standardized lab meal at two visits separated by one week. The PS in the iVR buffet and lab meals varied between a standard PS and a large PS. This design enabled comparisons of PS effects between iVR and lab settings, despite the scale difference in food weight between the environments. Portion size significantly affected food selection and food intake (p < 0.001). Subjects selected an additional 350 g in iVR and consumed an additional 154 g of food in the lab meals when offered the large portion compared to the small portion. The effect of PS showed a similar percentage increase in iVR (36.5%) and lab meals (39.2%). There was no significant difference in the effect of PS between iVR and lab meals after accounting for scale differences in food weight between the environments. The response to PS was not influenced by subject characteristics such as body mass index, sex, or age. These results demonstrate the utility of iVR for replicating real-world eating behaviors and enhancing our understanding of the intricate dynamics of food-related behaviors in a variety of contexts.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the transactional associations among maternal warmth, child temperamental inhibitory control, child externalizing behaviors, and maternal American acculturation in Korean immigrant families with young children across three time points, each 6 months apart. METHOD: Korean immigrant mothers (Mage = 35.93 years, SD = 3.68) and their preschool-aged children (Mage = 4.30 years, SD = 0.98) in the U.S. participated (n = 199 at Wave 1, n = 138 at Wave 2, and n = 105 at Wave 3). Mothers reported on their family demographics, maternal warmth, maternal American acculturation, and children's temperamental inhibitory control. Teachers reported on children's externalizing problems. RESULTS: Moderate to strong stabilities within each construct across time and within-time covariations among the constructs were revealed. Transactional relations between parent and child were not found. However, Wave 1 maternal American acculturation significantly influenced their level of Wave 2 maternal warmth. Wave 2 maternal warmth predicted increases in Wave 3 child temperamental inhibitory control. Maternal warmth at Wave 2 statistically mediated the association between Wave 1 maternal acculturation and Wave 3 child inhibitory control. CONCLUSION: Our findings highlight the importance of examining the complex mechanisms driving the associations among child, parenting, and cultural factors in promoting positive child characteristics and parenting practices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Subject(s)
Asian , Parenting , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Acculturation , Longitudinal Studies , Mother-Child Relations , Mothers , Temperament , Emigrants and ImmigrantsABSTRACT
Experiences of racial discrimination have been found to be associated with internalizing problems among ethnic-racial minority youth. However, mediating and moderating processes that might explain this association is less well understood. Thus, the present study aimed to examine whether Chinese American adolescents' bicultural identity integration harmony (BII-Harmony) mediated the association between their experiences of racial discrimination and internalizing behaviors. Furthermore, we examined the moderating role of their parents' BII-Harmony in this mediation model. Chinese American adolescents (Mage = 13.9 years; SD = 2.3; 48% female) reported their experiences of racial discrimination and BII-Harmony, and their parents (Mage = 46.2 years; SD = 5.2; 81% mothers) reported their BII-Harmony and their children's internalizing difficulties. Chinese American adolescents' racial discrimination experiences were negatively associated with BII-Harmony, and in turn, more internalizing problems, but only when their parents also reported low and mean levels of BII-Harmony.
ABSTRACT
Filial piety is a Confucian concept that guides how children treat and take care of their parents. The Filial Behaviour Scale (FBS) is a 25-item instrument developed in the Chinese context measuring behavioural manifestations of filial piety. Although the components of filial piety have been found to be relevant across cultures, little research has investigated the psychometric properties of the FBS in other cultural contexts. The present study evaluated the factor structure, internal consistency, measurement invariance and construct validity of the FBS across three cultural groups: the United States, Italy and Malaysia. Participants were 1090 emerging adults (67% females; Mage = 21.29 years, SD = 1.97; White Americans: n = 455, White Italians: n = 428, Malays: n = 328). A two-factor structure emerged across groups: Obedience/Obligation (behaviours showing obedience and obligation towards parents) and Relationship (behaviours expressing affection and promoting positive parent-child relationships). The two factors demonstrated adequate internal consistency, full configural, partial metric and partial scalar invariance, as well as unique associations with depressive symptoms and parent-child relationships across groups. These findings yielded a more nuanced understanding of filial behaviour and supported the utility of a two-factor FBS among emerging adults in various cultural contexts.
Subject(s)
Parent-Child Relations , Parents , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Young Adult , Latent Class Analysis , Social Group , United States , Italy , MalaysiaABSTRACT
The present study examined the impact of COVID-19-related racial discrimination on Chinese American adolescents (N = 213; Mage = 13.95 years, SD = 2.35; 49% girls) at the intersection of race and gender. We explored (1) subgroups of adolescents based on ethnic identity, bicultural identity integration, and behavioral acculturation; (2) their demographic correlates; and (3) whether the association between racial discrimination and anxiety varied across subgroups and gender. Latent profile analysis identified three profiles: bicultural, marginalized, and separated. Bicultural and marginalized adolescents were vulnerable to direct and vicarious racial discrimination, respectively. Moreover, bicultural and marginalized boys and separated girls were more negatively affected by COVID-19-related racial discrimination. The findings highlight the utility of person-centered and intersectional approaches in understanding Chinese American adolescents' experiences of racial discrimination.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Racism , Adolescent , Anxiety , Asian , Ethnicity , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Racial-ethnic minority parents' experiences with racial discrimination may function as a contextual stressor that negatively impacts psychological functioning to shape less effective parenting practices, including the use of more psychological control. Moreover, various factors can enhance or diminish psychological functioning in the face of racial discrimination. Accordingly, we examined the associations between Chinese American mothers' experiences of racial discrimination and three subdimensions of psychologically controlling parenting by considering the mediating roles of negative (depressive symptoms) and positive (psychological well-being) psychological functioning and the moderating role of maternal acculturation toward the mainstream culture (AMC) as a protective factor. METHOD: Participants comprised 226 Chinese American mothers of preschoolers (Mage = 37.65; SDage = 4.39). Two separate moderated-mediation models with depressive symptoms or psychological well-being as mediators were tested using maximum-likelihood estimation. RESULTS: Findings revealed significant direct positive associations between racial discrimination and all three subdimensions of psychological control (love withdrawal, guilt induction, and shaming practices), as well as indirect associations through depressive symptoms but not psychological well-being. Importantly, the indirect associations were further moderated by maternal AMC. CONCLUSIONS: Results illustrate the importance of incorporating the contextual stressor of perceived racial discrimination in parenting determinant models and examining specific and nuanced processes in understanding the role of psychological adjustment. Support for Chinese American mothers' engagement in and access to various resources in the mainstream cultural context may help alleviate the adverse impact of racial discrimination on mothers' psychological health and ultimately on their negative parenting behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: This review highlights the scope and significance of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with a focus on biobehavioral aspects and critical avenues for research. METHODS: A narrative review of the published research literature was undertaken, highlighting major empirical findings emerging during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: Interactions among biological, behavioral, and societal processes were prominent across all regions of the globe during the first year of the COVID-19 emergency. Affective, cognitive, behavioral, socioeconomic, and technological factors all played a significant role in the spread of infection, response precautions, and outcomes of mitigation efforts. Affective symptoms, suicidality, and cognitive dysfunction have been widely described consequences of the infection, the economic fallout, and the necessary public health mitigation measures themselves. The impact of COVID-19 may be especially serious for those living with severe mental illness and/or chronic medical diseases, given the confluence of several adverse factors in a manner that appears to have syndemic potential. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear that biological and behavioral factors interact with societal processes in the infectious disease context. Empirical research examining mechanistic pathways from infection and recovery to immunological, behavioral, and emotional outcomes is critical. Examination of how emotional and behavioral factors relate to the pandemic-both as causes and as effects-can provide valuable insights that can improve management of the current pandemic and future pandemics to come.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/psychology , COVID-19/prevention & control , Fear , Humans , Life Style , Mental Health/statistics & numerical data , Pandemics , Racism/psychology , Social Determinants of Health , Suicide/psychologyABSTRACT
What are the roles of specificity and commonality in social-emotional development? We begin by highlighting the conceptual context for this timely and timeless question and explain how responses to it can inform novel lines of theoretical and empirical inquiry, as well as sociocultural generalizability. Next, we describe how the selection of papers included in this special section contributes to our understanding of specificity and commonality in social-emotional development. We then explain how applying the complementarity principle to social-emotional development can inform a future research agenda in this domain. Lastly, we discuss how specificity and commonality fundamentally impact the way we conceptualize and implement interventions aimed at nurturing social-emotional development in every child.
Subject(s)
Child Development , Emotions , Child , Empirical Research , Family , HumansABSTRACT
Objectives: The present research used a person-centered approach to examine the acculturation styles of Chinese and Korean immigrant mothers in the United States and demographic characteristics and psychological functioning associated with each acculturation style. Method: The sample comprised 240 first-generation Chinese immigrant mothers (CIMs; M = 37.80 years, SD = 4.55) and 222 first-generation Korean immigrant mothers (KIMs; M = 36.00 years, SD = 3.69) of preschool children. Latent profile analysis was used to identify latent acculturation styles among CIMs and KIMs. We further examined whether mothers' acculturation styles were associated with their sociodemographic characteristics and psychological functioning within each cultural group. Results: Four acculturation styles were revealed among CIMs: (a) behaviorally undifferentiated/psychologically assimilated, (b) behaviorally marginalized/psychologically separated, (c) behaviorally psychologically assimilated, and (d) behaviorally integrated/psychologically undifferentiated. Three acculturation styles were uncovered among KIMs: behaviorally psychologically separated, behaviorally psychologically assimilated, and behaviorally psychologically integrated. Chinese behaviorally integrated/psychologically undifferentiated mothers and Korean behaviorally psychologically separated perceived the highest levels of coethnic concentration in their communities. Chinese behaviorally marginalized/psychologically separated mothers reported poorer psychological functioning than other Chinese mothers. Korean behaviorally psychologically separated mothers had poorer psychological functioning than other Korean mothers. Conclusions: Findings revealed the significant role of participation in the American mainstream culture for Asian immigrant mothers' psychological adjustment. The heterogeneity in the acculturation experiences of Asian immigrants in the United States was highlighted. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
Subject(s)
Acculturation , Emigrants and Immigrants , Asian People , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Mothers , Republic of Korea , United StatesABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has fueled anti-Asian racism and xenophobia in the United States, which negatively impact Asian Americans' adjustment. To identify risk and protective factors for Chinese American adolescents' mental health, the present study examined: (1) the associations between Chinese American adolescents' experiences of COVID-19-related racial discrimination and their internalizing difficulties; (2) the moderating roles of: (a) adolescents' bicultural identity integration (BII; harmony and blendedness dimensions separately) and (b) parents' promotion of mistrust ethnic-racial socialization (PMERS); and (c) the interplay between BII and PMERS in the associations between racial discrimination and internalizing difficulties. METHOD: Participants included 211 Chinese American adolescents of 10-18 years old (M age = 13.92, SD = 2.33; 48% girls) and their parents (M age = 46.18 years, SD = 5.17; 81% mothers). RESULTS: Overall, adolescents' experiences of COVID-19-related racial discrimination were associated with more internalizing difficulties, and this association was buffered by BII harmony and blendedness and exacerbated by PMERS. However, a complex interplay among specific BII dimensions and parental PMERS in the associations between racial discrimination and adolescent internalizing problems was revealed. Adolescents with lower levels of BII blendedness were more vulnerable to the negative effects of racial discrimination on their internalizing problems and more susceptible to their parents' PMERS; adolescents who reported higher levels of BII harmony and perceived lower levels of parental PMERS were more protected from the negative effects of racial discrimination on their internalizing problems. CONCLUSION: Both adolescents' and parents' contributions should be considered simultaneously in promoting resilience in Chinese American families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Racism , Adolescent , Asian , Child , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Protective Factors , SARS-CoV-2 , United StatesABSTRACT
We adopted a person-centered approach to identify maternal feeding profiles among urban Chinese mothers of preschoolers, including two previously unexamined culturally-emphasized practices, and examine the associations between these feeding profiles and child and parent characteristics. Participants included 167 mothers and their preschoolers residing in Shanghai, China. Mothers reported on their feeding beliefs and practices, perceptions of child's body shapes, child dietary intake, and family demographic information. The hierarchical clustering method revealed 3 feeding clusters: uninvolved feeding (35.3%), concerned and restrictive feeding (21.6%), and high-pressure feeding (43.1%). Child BMI, weight status, maternal length of staying in Shanghai, maternal perceptions of child actual body shape and ideal body shape, and child unhealthy dietary intake were significantly different across the three clusters. The person-centered approach allowed for the examination of various feeding beliefs and practices simultaneously and revealed patterns of maternal feeding in Chinese families with preschoolers. Our oversampling of underweight and overweight groups of children in the present study allowed for the derivation of feeding profiles across children in all weight status groups. Moreover, the examination of whether demographic, maternal body shape perceptions, and child dietary intake differed across the clusters of mothers provided a more complete picture of family context and processes that may underlie and contribute to mothers' feeding practices, and ultimately their children's weight.
Subject(s)
Mothers , Thinness , Body Mass Index , Body Weight , Child , China , Feeding Behavior , Female , Humans , Overweight/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Emerging adulthood is a critical developmental period for examining food- and eating-related behaviors as long-term weight-related behavioral patterns are established. Virtual reality (VR) technology is a promising tool for basic and applied research on eating and food-related processes. Thus, the present study tested the validity and user perceptions of a highly immersive and realistic VR food buffet by: (1) comparing participants' food selections made in the VR buffet and a real-world (RW) food buffet cafeteria one-week apart, and (2) assessing participants' rated perceptions of their VR experience (0-100 scale). Participants comprised an ethnically diverse sample of emerging adults (N = 35, Mage = 20.49, SD = 2.17). Results revealed that participants' food selections in the VR and RW food buffets were significantly and positively correlated in Kcals, grams, carbohydrates, and protein (all p's < 0.05). Moreover, participants perceived that: (a) the VR buffet was natural (M = 70.97, SD = 20.92), (b) their lunch selection in the VR buffet represented a lunch they would select on an average day (M = 84.11, SD = 15.92); and (c) their selection represented a lunch they would select if the same foods were available (M = 91.29, SD = 11.00). Our findings demonstrated the validity and acceptability of our highly immersive and realistic VR buffet for assessing food selection that is generalizable to RW food settings one-week apart without precisely matched foods. The findings of this study support the utility of VR as a validated tool for research on psychological and behavioral food-related processes and training interventions among emerging adults.
Subject(s)
Food Preferences , Virtual Reality , Adult , Food , Food Handling , Humans , Young AdultABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Chinese immigrant mothers have been found to hold cultural-specific beliefs about children's weight and use cultural-specific feeding practices when feeding their children. However, current measurements of child feeding, including the widely used Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ), do not capture these cultural-specific beliefs and practices. Thus, the present study examined the underlying factor structure of the original CFQ (7-factor model) and the modified CFQ with additional Asian cultural-specific feeding items (8- and 9-factor model) and assessed the validity of the CFQ among U.S. Chinese immigrant mothers. METHOD: First-generation Chinese immigrant mothers (N = 216, Mage = 38.31, SDage = 4.34) with young children (Mage = 5.14, SDage = 1.49; 47.70% females) completed the CFQ (Birch et al., 2001), with two additional items capturing Asian cultural-specific feeding beliefs and practices. Children's and parents' body mass index and mothers' perceptions of their children's body size were also assessed. RESULTS: Our findings revealed that the 9-factor model, which included the cultural-specific feeding items, was the most optimal model to represent the factor structure of feeding beliefs and practices among U.S. Chinese immigrant mothers of young children. Mothers' feeding beliefs and practices were associated with children's and mothers' body mass index and mothers' perceptions of their children's body size. CONCLUSIONS: The present study highlighted the importance of cultural-specific beliefs and practices when examining parents' feeding perceptions, beliefs, and practices.
Subject(s)
Asian/psychology , Emigrants and Immigrants/psychology , Feeding Behavior/ethnology , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice/ethnology , Mothers/psychology , Adult , Body Mass Index , Child , Child, Preschool , China/ethnology , Female , Humans , Male , Surveys and Questionnaires , United StatesABSTRACT
The notion of 'wise mother and good wife (WMGW)' (Hyonmo Yangcho) is the traditional idealized image of Korean womanhood as one who serves her country and others through her roles as a mother and wife. This ideology may continue to have some significance in the lives of many first-generation Korean immigrant women, but its potential role in the adjustment challenges these women may face while acculturating to the immigrant context in the United States has received little attention. In this paper, we briefly review the historical background of the WMGW ideology and discussed the significance of focusing research attention on the role of this notion in contemporary first-generation Korean immigrant women in the United States. We focus on the intersecting influences of gender, ethnicity, and immigrants' generation status, which may further marginalize some first-generation Korean immigrant mothers. We then outline possible unique challenges faced by some of these mothers due to the WMGW gender ideology, highlighting potential immigration-related difficulties including changes in their social support networks, parenting burden, mental health, and language issues. Finally, we provide suggestions for researchers and practitioners working with U.S. Korean immigrant women.
Subject(s)
Acculturation , Emigrants and Immigrants/psychology , Adaptation, Psychological , Aged , Emigrants and Immigrants/statistics & numerical data , Female , Humans , Middle Aged , Mothers/psychology , Mothers/statistics & numerical data , Republic of Korea/ethnology , Sexism/psychology , Social Support , Spouses/psychology , Spouses/statistics & numerical data , Surveys and Questionnaires , United StatesABSTRACT
This study examined the conceptualisation of Singaporean and Chinese parents' emotion socialisation in childhood and the relation to adolescents' emotion regulation with 601 adolescents aged 12-15. For both Singaporean and Chinese parents, we examined the factorial structure underlying six parental reactions to children's negative emotions, and the relations between the established factors with adolescents' cognitive reappraisal and response suppression. The findings revealed differences in the conceptualisation of parental reactions for Singaporean and Chinese parents, with the three- and four-factor models indicating good fit, respectively. For Singaporean parents, the factor comprising Expressive Encouragement, Emotion-Focused and Problem-Focused reactions was positively correlated with male adolescents' cognitive reappraisal, and the factor comprising Punitive and Distress Reactions was positively related to female adolescents' response suppression. For Chinese parents, the Expressive Encouragement factor was positively correlated with male adolescents' cognitive reappraisal. These findings on cultural differences in the factors underlying parental reactions and their relations with adolescents' emotion regulation support the emotion competency framework for understanding parents' emotion socialisation across cultures.
Subject(s)
Emotional Regulation , Emotions/physiology , Socialization , Adolescent , Asian People , Child , Female , Humans , Male , Parent-Child Relations , Parents/psychology , SingaporeABSTRACT
Bullying has been understudied among preschool children, especially those from Chinese American families. Previous research has also neglected the dimensional effects of psychological control on child bullying development. This study examined two psychological control dimensions, love withdrawal and guilt induction, and their effects on children's bullying aggressive behavior using a longitudinal design. Participants were first-generation Chinese American mothers (N = 133; mean age [Mage] = 37.82) and their preschool children (Mage = 4.48). Chinese immigrant mothers reported their psychologically controlling parenting and teachers rated children's bullying aggressive behaviors in the school setting. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to establish the psychometric properties and cross-wave measurement equivalence of the study constructs. Cross-lagged structural equation modeling analysis indicated that maternal love withdrawal prospectively predicted more bullying aggressive behavior, whereas guilt induction predicted less bullying aggressive behavior in children 6 months later. These results held after controlling for the initial level of children's problem behaviors and demographic variables (child age, gender, and maternal education). For child effects, child bullying aggressive behavior predicted more maternal guilt induction over time but not love withdrawal. Our findings highlight the importance of construct specificity and cultural context in understanding associations between parenting and child development.