Mainland Chinese parenting styles and parent–child interaction

TLDR

The study surveyed 97 Mainland Chinese mothers and their young children, using questionnaires to assess parenting styles, Chinese cultural values, parenting stress, and social support. Regression analyses revealed that adherence to Chinese values, parenting stress, social support, and education predicted authoritative and authoritarian styles, and that higher parenting distress, low support, and child difficultness were linked to dysfunctional mother–child interaction, indicating that eco‑cultural factors shape parenting styles and interactions.

Abstract

Parenting styles and mother–child interaction were examined with 97 Mainland Chinese mothers (M age 1 /4 29.64 years, SD 1 /4 3.64) and their young children (M 1 /4 24.30 months, SD 1 /4 4.57). Mothers completed questionnaires about their parenting styles, orientation to Chinese cultural values, perceived parenting stress, and sources of social support. The regression analyses showed that mothers’ adherence to Chinese values was associated with both authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles. Other characteristics of the family contexts, such as perceived parenting distress, social support, and years of education, also contributed to Chinese mothers’ parenting styles. Mother–child dysfunctional interaction was associated with mothers’ heightened parenting distress, a lack of perceived social support, and perceptions of children's difficultness. Group comparisons revealed that Chinese mothers who had high scores for both authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles adhered most strongly to the Chinese cultural values. The findings suggest that the aspects of families’ eco-cultural settings such as mothers’ endorsement of Chinese cultural values and perceived parenting stress contribute to their parenting styles and interaction with their children.