When Parents Are at Fault: Development and Validation of the Parental Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale.

Research has linked individuals' dispositional guilt and shame to their interpersonal processes. Although caregivers' guilt and shame proneness in the parenting context likely have important implications for their mental health and parenting, there is a lack of validated measures for such dispositions. In three studies with Chinese parents, we developed and validated the Parental Guilt and Shame Proneness scale (PGASP), which was based on the Guilt and Shame Proneness scale (GASP). The PGASP comprises two guilt subscales-negative behavior-evaluations (guilt-NBE) and repair action tendencies (guilt-repair)-and two shame subscales-negative self-evaluations (shame-NSE) and withdrawal action tendencies (shame-withdraw). Study 1 (N = 604) provided support for the four-factor structure of the PGASP, which was replicated in Study 2 (N = 451). The concurrent validity of the PGASP was examined in Study 2 and Study 3 (N = 455). The two guilt subscales were associated with better mental health and more positive parenting, whereas parents' shame-withdraw exhibited the opposite pattern; weak or no relations were found for shame-NSE. Findings highlight the need to differentiate between parents' shame-NSE and shame-withdraw. PGASP may be a useful tool for identifying parents at risk of engaging in negative parenting.

My child and I: self- and child-reference effects among parents with self-worth contingent on children's performance.

Research shows that parents' self-worth may be contingent on their children's performance, with implications for their interactions with children. This study examined whether such child-based worth is manifested in parents' recognition memory. Parents of school-age children in China (N = 527) reported on their child-based worth and completed a recognition memory task involving evaluative trait adjectives encoded in three conditions: self-reference, child-reference, and semantic processing. The more parents had child-based worth, the more they exhibited a child-reference effect - superior recognition memory of evaluative trait adjectives encoded with reference to the child rather than semantically. Parents exhibited the classic self-reference effect in comparisons of recognition memory between the self-reference and semantic processing conditions, but this effect was not evidenced among parents high in child-based worth. Only parents low in child-based worth exhibited the self-reference effect in comparisons between the self-reference and child-reference conditions. Findings suggest that when parents hinge their self-worth on children's performance, evaluative information related to children may be an elaborate structure in memory.

Parents' responses to their children's performance: A process examination in the United States and China.

This research examined the idea that children's inferences about their parents' goals for them is a possible mechanism by which parents' responses to their children's performance contribute to children's psychological functioning. American (N = 447; Mage = 13.24 years; 49% girls; 95% European American) and Chinese (N = 439; Mage = 13.36 years; 52% girls) early adolescents reported on parents' responses to their performance, parents' self-worth and self-improvement goals for them, and their psychological functioning (e.g., subjective well-being) twice over a year. The more parents used success-oriented responses, the more their children inferred they held self-worth goals, which predicted enhanced psychological functioning among children over time. The more parents used failure responses, the more their children inferred they held self-improvement goals, but this did not underlie the tendency for parents' failure responses to predict poorer psychological functioning over time. These pathways tended to be stronger in the United States than China. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Youth's Negative Stereotypes of Teen Emotionality: Reciprocal Relations with Emotional Functioning in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

In Western society, there has been a history of perceiving adolescence as a time of "storm and stress," during which youth may go through heightened negative experiences such as conflict with parents, disengagement from school, and emotional dysfunction. Despite increasing attention to positive youth development, such negative stereotypes of adolescence may be held by youth themselves, which undermine their behavioral and neural development. However, youth's stereotypes of teen emotionality in particular (i.e., beliefs that teens typically experience greater emotionality than younger children) and the role of such stereotypes in youth's emotional functioning have not been examined. This longitudinal study investigated the reciprocal relations between youth's negative stereotypes of teen emotionality and their emotional functioning (i.e., emotional expressivity and emotion regulation) in Hong Kong and Mainland China, two regions in China sharing Chinese cultural traditions but differing in the extent of exposure to Western influence (N = 1269; 55% girls; M age = 12.86 years). Although youth in Hong Kong saw the teen years as a time of heightened emotionality more than did their counterparts in Mainland China, such stereotypes predicted youth's greater emotional expressivity and less emotion regulation over the 7th grade in both regions. Moreover, in both regions, youth's negative expressivity reciprocally predicted their stronger stereotypes of teen emotionality over time. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the role of youth's stereotypes of teen emotionality in shaping their emotional expressivity and emotion regulation during early adolescence, and also the role of youth's negative expressivity in reinforcing their stereotypes. Moreover, these findings highlight the relevance of the Western-popularized perception of adolescence as a time of "storm and stress" in non-Western regions in a world of increasing globalization and societal change.

An East-West contrast in executive function: Measurement invariance of computerized tasks in school-aged children and adolescents.

Existing cross-cultural findings related to school-aged children's executive function (EF) from studies using computerized tasks highlight both an East-West contrast (East > West) and potential methodological confounds (e.g., contrasting levels of computer fluency). Capitalizing on two recent data sets, this multisite study of 1,311 children living in mainland China (n = 453; Mage = 11.89 years, SD = 0.87), Hong Kong (n = 371; Mage = 12.21 years, SD = 0.99), and the United Kingdom (n = 487; Mage = 11.91 years, SD = 0.93) tested measurement invariance of a computerized EF-task battery prior to investigating cultural contrasts in mean levels of EF efficiency scores. Our models established partial scalar invariance across sites. Latent factor means were substantially lower for British children than for their counterparts from either mainland China or Hong Kong, with a significant but smaller contrast between the latter two groups. Within the Chinese sample, self-reported computer use was unrelated to variation in children's performance on online tests of EF, indicating that peripheral effects of task modality are unlikely to explain the between-culture differences in EF task performance.

Early adolescents' stereotypes about teens in Hong Kong and Chongqing: Reciprocal pathways with problem behavior.

To elucidate the processes underlying the cultural construction of adolescence, this research examined youth's stereotypes about teens in Hong Kong and Chongqing, a relatively less developed city in Mainland China. Youth (N = 1,269) reported on their teen stereotypes and problem behavior in the fall and spring of 7th grade. Youth in Hong Kong (vs. Chongqing) saw adolescence as a time of dampened family obligation as well as heightened individuation from parents, disengagement from school, and orientation toward peers. The tendency for youth in Hong Kong (vs. Chongqing) to see teens as less obligated to their family and more disengaged from school undergirded their greater problem behavior over the 7th grade, with problem behavior appearing to contribute to the maintenance of the two stereotypes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Do executive functions mediate the link between socioeconomic status and numeracy skills? A cross-site comparison of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

In the fields of education, sociology, and economics, there is a long-standing connection between socioeconomic status (SES) and school outcomes in a wide variety of cultural settings, but these studies have yet to examine the possible mediating effects of domain-general cognitive factors such as executive functions (EFs). Addressing this gap and building on evidence for links between EFs and numeracy, the current cross-cultural study used a large sample (N = 835) of 9- to 16-year-old children from Hong Kong and the United Kingdom to examine the independence and interplay of SES and EFs as predictors of numeracy skills. Our analyses yielded three key findings, namely that (a) EFs consistently predicted numeracy skills across sites and genders, (b) associations between SES and EFs differed by site and gender, and (c) associations between numeracy skills and SES/EFs differed by site and gender. Together with previous findings, our results suggest culture-specific associations among SES, EFs, and numeracy, indicating that cultural insights may enable impactful shifts in public policy to narrow the achievement gap between children from affluent and disadvantaged families.

Implications of Chinese and American mothers' goals for children's emotional distress.

This research examined a cultural socialization model in which differences in Chinese and American parents' goals for children foster differences in children's emotional distress via parents' responses to children's performance. Chinese and American mothers and their children (N = 397; Mage = 13.19 years) participated in a 2-wave study spanning a year. Mothers reported on their self-improvement (i.e., children striving to improve) and self-worth (i.e., children feeling worthy) goals, as well as responses to children's performance. Children reported on their emotional distress (e.g., anxiety and depression). Chinese (vs. American) mothers' greater endorsement of self-improvement goals predicted their more frequent use of failure-oriented responses (e.g., highlighting children's mistakes), which accounted for Chinese (vs. American) children's heightened emotional distress over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Children's Block-Building Skills and Mother-Child Block-Building Interactions Across Four U.S. Ethnic Groups.

Play offers an unparalleled opportunity for young children to gain cognitive skills in informal settings. Block play in particular-including interactions with parents around block constructions-teaches children about intrinsic spatial features of objects (size, shape) and extrinsic spatial relations. In turn, early spatial cognition paves the way for later competencies in math and science. We assessed 4- and 5-year-old children's spatial skill on a set of block-building constructions and examined mother-child block building interactions in 167 U.S. dyads from African American, Dominican, Mexican, and Chinese backgrounds. At both ages, children were instructed to copy several 3D block constructions, followed by a "break" during which mothers and children were left alone with the blocks. A form that contained pictures of test items was left on the table. Video-recordings of mother-child interactions during the break were coded for two types of building behaviors - test-specific construction (building structures on the test form) or free-form construction (building structures not on the test form). Chinese children outperformed Mexican, African American, and Dominican children on the block-building assessment. Further, Chinese and Mexican mother-child dyads spent more time building test-specific constructions than did African American and Dominican dyads. At an individual level, mothers' time spent building test-specific constructions at the 4-year (but not 5-year) assessment, but not mothers' initiation of block building interactions or verbal instructions, related to children's performance, when controlling for ethnicity. Ethnic differences in children's block-building performance and experiences emerge prior to formal schooling and provide a valuable window into sources of individual differences in early spatial cognition.

The Role of Mothers' Child-Based Worth in Their Affective Responses to Children's Performance.

This research examined whether American and Chinese mothers' tendencies to base their worth on children's performance contributes to their affective responses to children's performance. Study 1 used daily interviews to assess mothers' warmth (vs. hostility) and children's school performance (N = 197; Mage  = 12.81 years). In Study 2, such affect was observed in the laboratory following children's manipulated performance on cognitive problems (N = 128; Mage  = 10.21 years). The more mothers based their worth on children's performance, the more their warmth (vs. hostility) decreased when children failed in Study 1. This pattern was evident only among Chinese mothers in Study 2. In both studies, child-based worth did not contribute to mothers' affective responses to children's success.

Efficiency of Executive Function: A Two-Generation Cross-Cultural Comparison of Samples From Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

Although Asian preschoolers acquire executive functions (EFs) earlier than their Western counterparts, little is known about whether this advantage persists into later childhood and adulthood. To address this gap, in the current study we gave four computerized EF tasks (providing measures of inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning) to a large sample ( n = 1,427) of 9- to 16-year-olds and their parents. All participants lived in either the United Kingdom or Hong Kong. Our findings highlight the importance of combining developmental and cultural perspectives and show both similarities and contrasts across sites. Specifically, adults' EF performance did not differ between the two sites; age-related changes in executive function for both the children and the parents appeared to be culturally invariant, as did a modest intergenerational correlation. In contrast, school-age children and young adolescents in Hong Kong outperformed their United Kingdom counterparts on all four EF tasks, a difference consistent with previous findings from preschool children.

Immigrant Chinese Mothers' Socialization of Achievement in Children: A Strategic Adaptation to the Host Society.

Academic socialization by low-income immigrant mothers from Mainland China was investigated in two studies. Immigrant Chinese mothers of first graders (n = 52; Mage  = 38.69) in the United States (Study 1) and kindergartners (n = 86; Mage  = 36.81) in Hong Kong (Study 2) tell stories that emphasized achieving the best grade through effort more than did African American (n = 39; Mage  = 31.44) and native Hong Kong (n = 76; Mage  = 36.64) mothers, respectively. The emphasis on achievement was associated with mothers' heightened discussion on discrimination (Study 1) and beliefs that education promotes upward mobility (Study 2), as well as children's expectations that a story protagonist would receive maternal criticism for being nonpersistent in learning (Study 2).

Why are Chinese mothers more controlling than American mothers? "My child is my report card".

Chinese parents exert more control over children than do American parents. The current research examined whether this is due in part to Chinese parents' feelings of worth being more contingent on children's performance. Twice over a year, 215 mothers and children (Mage  = 12.86 years) in China and the United States (European and African American) reported on psychologically controlling parenting. Mothers also indicated the extent to which their worth is contingent on children's performance. Psychologically controlling parenting was higher among Chinese than American mothers, particularly European (vs. African) American mothers. Chinese (vs. American) mothers' feelings of worth were more contingent on children's performance, with this contributing to their heightened psychological control relative to American mothers.

European American and Chinese parents' responses to children's success and failure: implications for children's responses.

The authors examined cultural differences in parents' responses to their children's performance. In Study 1 (N = 421), Chinese 5th graders reported that their parents de-emphasized their academic success and emphasized their academic failure, whereas their American counterparts reported that their parents did the opposite. This partially accounted for Chinese (vs. American) children responding less positively to success and more negatively to failure. In Study 2 (N = 128), Chinese and American mothers' responses to their 4th and 5th graders' performance were observed in the laboratory. The cultural differences in children's reports of parents' responses documented in Study 1 were replicated; mothers' responses were also associated with children's subsequent performance. In addition, Chinese mothers were more involved than were American mothers, but their affect was similar. Taken together, the results suggest that parents' responses to children's performance may be a channel for cultural transmission and perpetuation of responses to performance.

Mothers' affect in the homework context: the importance of staying positive.

This research investigated mothers' affect in the context of children's homework. Mothers (N = 109) of children 8 to 12 years old were interviewed daily about their affect while interacting with children, their assistance with children's homework, and children's behavior while completing homework. At this time and 6 months later, children's motivational and emotional functioning was assessed. Although mothers' negative affect was lower than their positive affect, it was elevated on days their assistance with homework was high. This was accounted for by mothers' perceptions of children as helpless on days they provided heightened assistance. Mothers' positive affect in the homework context buffered children's motivational and emotional functioning against mothers' negative affect as well as children's helplessness.

Children's achievement moderates the effects of mothers' use of control and autonomy support.

Two studies investigated the effects of parents' control and autonomy support on low- and high-achieving children. In Study 1, mothers' (N=110) involvement with children (7 to 10 years old) in the context of a challenging task was observed. During this interaction, mothers' control predicted diminished engagement and their autonomy support predicted enhanced performance for low-achieving children more than for high-achieving children. In Study 2, mothers' (N=121) responses to children's (9 to 12 years old) failure were assessed with a daily checklist. Children's grades were obtained at this time and 6 months later. Mothers' controlling responses predicted decreased performance and their autonomy-supportive responses predicted increased performance over time for low achievers more than for high achievers.