A sizable body of research indicates that parents’ attempts to control children through shaming, authority assertion and guilt induction have aversive effects on children’s psychological functioning (for reviews, see Grolnick & Pomerantz, 2009; Soenens & Vansteenkiste, 2010). In contrast, when parents are autonomy supportive, that is, they encourage children’s self- direction by adopting children’s perspective and allowing children to make decisions, children flourish (e.g., Grolnick & Ryan, 1989). Notably, these conclusions are primarily based on research conducted in the Western cultural context, such as the United States. Do parents’ controlling and autonomy-supportive practices have similar implications for children’s functioning in environments other than the West?
It has been argued that in East Asian countries, such as China, individuals’ autonomy is emphasized to a lesser extent. As such, controlling parenting practices may not be as detrimental for children’s functioning as in the West (e.g., Chao, 1994; Soenens, Vansteenkiste, & Van Petegem, 2015). However, contrary to such an argument, research indicates that parents’ control predicts dampened academic and emotional functioning among children in China, as in the United States (for a review, see Pomerantz & Wang, 2009). Unfortunately, the evidence to date has almost exclusively relied on children’s reports of parenting. If American and Chinese children’s reports of parenting do not similarly reflect parents’ actual practices in the two countries, analyses based on children’s reports can lead to erroneous conclusions about the role of parents in the United States and China.
To address this research gap, we examined whether children’s reports of parenting correspond with mothers’ and observers’ reports similarly in the United States and China. In addition, we investigated whether controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting practices are predictive of children’s adjustment similarly in the two countries, using reports from various informants. We focused on parenting in the academic arena, given that controlling parenting may be less detrimental for Chinese (vs. American) children when it is exerted around academics.
A total of 394 American and Chinese mother-child dyads participated in the study. At the start of the study, all children were in seventh grade (M age = 13.19 years). Children and their mothers reported on mothers’ control and autonomy support with frequently used measures (e.g., Barber, Stolz, & Olsen, 2005; Wang, Pomerantz, & Chen, 2007) adapted to the academic arena.
These measures paralleled a laboratory observation of mothers’ control and autonomy support as they worked with children on a set of challenging academic tasks in the laboratory. The tasks were designed to elicit observable interactions in a standardized setting of similar familiarity in the United States and China. Trained observers provided ratings on parents’ behaviors during the laboratory task. At the conclusion of the laboratory session, as well as six months after the session, children completed surveys about their academic and psychological functioning.
Results indicated that children’s reports of their mothers’ parenting were modestly associated with mothers’ reports of their own parenting. Notably, the strength of association between children’s and mothers’ reports, as well as children’s and observers’ reports, do not differ between the United States and China. Therefore, there is no evidence that American and Chinese children’s reports of their mothers’ practices are differentially reflective of their parents’ actual practices.
Moreover, consistent with research using children’s reports, this research revealed that parents’ control predicted dampened functioning in children, as reflected in children’s grades and emotional adjustment. These patterns were similarly evident in the United States and China, even when mothers’ and observers’ reports of parenting were utilized.
Taken together, findings from this research affirm prior research indicating that heightened control and dampened autonomy support among parents can undermine children’s academic and emotional functioning in both the United States and China. Results allayed the suspicion that American and Chinese children’s reports of parenting do not similarly correspond to parents’ actual practices, thereby creating problems in making comparisons.
References
Barber, B. K., Stolz, H. E., & Olsen, J. A. (2005). Parental support, psychological control, and behavioral control: Assessing relevance across time, method, and culture. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 70(4, Serial No. 281). doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5834. 2005.00364.x
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. doi:10.2307/1131308
Grolnick, W. S., & Pomerantz, E. M. (2009). Issues and challenges in studying parental control: Toward a new conceptualization. Child Development Perspectives, 3, 165–170. doi:10.1111/j.1750-8606.2009.00099.x
Grolnick, W. S., & Ryan, R. M. (1989). Parent styles associated with children’s self-regulation and competence in school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 143–154. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.81.2.143
Pomerantz, E. M., & Wang, Q. (2009). The role of parents’ control in children’s development in Western and East Asian countries. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 285–289. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01 653.x
Soenens, B., & Vansteenkiste, M. (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
Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., & Van Petegem, S. (2015). Let us not throw the baby with the bathwater: Applying the principle of universalism without uniformity to autonomy-supportive and controlling parenting. Child Development Perspectives, 9, 44–49. doi:10.1111/cdep.12103