Abstract
Embracing the perspectives that multiple contextual factors are associated with maternal parenting behaviors and that the predictions of maternal parenting behaviors to child social adjustment are different depending on child characteristics, this thesis is focused on examining these developmental processes in the Chinese cultural context of early socialization. The aims
... read more
are threefold. First, we aim at measuring and describing how Chinese mothers use a broad spectrum of parenting behaviors with young children. Second, we aim at describing the similarities and differences between Chinese and Dutch mothers in these parenting behaviors in early childhood and further revealing how parenting stress, the only-child status, and maternal working time help to explain cultural variations in parenting. Third, we aim at elucidating how specific maternal parenting behaviors, including respect for autonomy and negative control, predict child social adjustment throughout childhood and how these predictions are different depending on children’s dispositional differences in self-control. This thesis includes five empirical studies (chapters 2-6) and one theoretical review denoted to the goodness-of-fit model (chapter 7). Data from four research samples were used to examine the research questions in the five empirical studies. The samples are (1) a large, cross-sectional community sample of urban Chinese mothers with children aged between 1 and 4 years (N = 2,179), (2) a large, cross-sectional sample of Dutch mothers with young children aged between 1 and 4 years (N = 1,090), (3) a 7-wave longitudinal (at 6, 9, 14, 25, 38, 60, and 84 months of child ages) sample of about 100 Chinese children and their families who participated in observations and completed questionnaires, and (4) a 4-wave longitudinal (at 6, 15, 25, and 37 months of child ages) sample of about 280 Chinese children and their families who participated in observations and completed questionnaires. Findings of this thesis indicate that Chinese mothers often use supporting behaviors, stimulating behaviors, and positive discipline and use most harsh disciplinary behaviors (e.g., verbal punishment) infrequently with young children. But Chinese mothers use psychological control more often than do Dutch mothers, although its frequencies are low in both groups of mothers. Compared to Dutch mothers, Chinese mothers are less consistent in enforcing rules. Furthermore, the results of this thesis also show that child self-control moderates how maternal respect for autonomy and negative control predict child positive and negative indicators of social adjustment over time. Chinese with high levels of self-control benefit from more maternal respect for autonomy and less maternal negative control whereas children with low levels of self-control benefit from more maternal negative control and less maternal respect for autonomy. These results lend support to the goodness-of-fit model, showing that this model is a useful and valuable theoretical tool for characterizing person×environment developmental processes (i.e., the pattern of a contrastive effect). In conclusion, this dissertation has brought us one step closer to apprehending the characteristics and functions of parenting behaviors in contemporary Chinese mothers with young children.
show less
