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发帖数: 901 | 1 Traditional Chinese-style parenting has gained a lot of attention in recent
years for being more authoritarian than Western parenting. But there are
limited empirical explanations for these differences. Now, new research
suggests Chinese mothers are more psychologically controlling than European-
American mothers in part because their feelings of self-worth are tied to
their children's performance.
A lot of research has looked at the effects that psychological control can
have on a child's development. In this type of parenting, moms and dads try
to control and direct their children's behavior by manipulating their
feelings, such as by guilting or shaming them when they don't perform well,
explained University of Illinois psychologist Eva Pomerantz, who is a co-
author of the new study. In both the United States and some other countries,
this parenting style can undermine children's psychological adjustment.
"Those kids have emotional problems like depression and anxiety and are
overall less happy," Pomerantz told LiveScience. [10 Scientific Tips for
Raising Happy Kids]
Some studies have suggested that Chinese parents, dubbed "Tiger moms," are
more likely to use psychological control than American parents. In the past,
psychologists have speculated that Chinese parents' authoritarian parenting
style stems from the Chinese notion of guan, which describes parents'
dedication to their children through both governance and love.
"Aside from that, I don't know if there have been that many other
explanations," Pomerantz said. "[Ours] is the first study that looked to
really unpack this culture difference in parenting."
Psychological Control
In trying to unpack the parenting differences, Pomerantz and her colleagues
in China reasoned that certain aspects of Chinese culture might make parents
base more of their self-worth on their children's performance, heightening
their tendency to use psychological control to try to make their kids
perform better.
For example, Chinese culture is considered a "face" culture, where people's
sense of worth is highly affected by how much respect they get from others.
The more people fulfill their societal expectations, the more respect they
get — one such expectation is making sure their children are well developed
, especially in terms of academics.
To test how child-based worth affected parenting styles, the researchers
sent out two waves of surveys (separated by a year) to 215 mothers and their
children — 71 families in China, along with 84 European-American and 60
African-American families in the United States.
Parts of the surveys focused on the degree to which the mothers used
psychological control. So on a 5-point scale, mothers responded with how
much they agreed with such statements as, "If my daughter does something I
do not like, I sometimes act less friendly to her so that she knows I am
disappointed." Children responded with agreement to statements like, "My
parents tell me that I should feel guilty when I do not meet their
expectations." [5 Ways to Foster Self-Compassion in Your Child]
Another part of the survey measured (on a 7-point scale) how much the
mothers' self-worth was contingent on their children's successes. It
included statements such as "My daughter’s failures have very little
influence on my worth as a person" and "My daughter's failures can make me
feel ashamed." Finally, the surveys looked at the mothers' perception of
their children's competence in school. |
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