Family conditions, parental acceptance, and social competence and aggression in Chinese children

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations among family ecological factors including parental educational and occupational status, family income and housing conditions, the quality of the marital relationship and social support, parental acceptance and rejection, and social competence in a sample of Chinese children. Four hundred and seventy-six primary school children in Shanghai, P.R. China, and their parents participated in the study. Children were administered a peer assessment measure of social behavior and a measure of their perceptions of parental behavior. Parents completed questionnaires concerning family background, parental acceptance and rejection, perceived social support, and marital conflict and satisfaction. Teachers completed a rating scale concerning children's behaviors in school. Information on children's leadership was collected from the school administrative records. Results indicated that parental educational and occupational status was associated with family psychological conditions which, in turn, were predictive of parental acceptance. Family capital resources were negatively related to parental acceptance. Results also indicated that parental acceptance was associated positively with prosocial-competent behavior in children and negatively with aggressive behavior in children. Parental educational and occupational status was directly associated with children's competent behavior. Finally, it was found that family psychological resources were positively related to competent behavior and negatively related to aggression in children, through the mediation of parental acceptance and rejection. Family capital resources were indirectly and positively associated with child aggression through the mediation of parental acceptance and rejection.     

Parental stress and parenting in Chinese immigrant families: The mediating role of social support

As the population of Chinese immigrants has been growing rapidly in the United States, it has been understudied on the parenting behaviours as well as the roles parental stress and social support playing in parenting in this group. This study investigated whether parental stress was associated with parenting and whether this relationship was mediated by social support in a sample of 255 Chinese immigrant parents from the Survey of Asian American Families in New York City. Regression analyses with a rich array of control variables found that a higher level of parental stress and the presence of one or more stressors such as unemployment, low income, and low education were positively associated with the use of harsh discipline and parent–child conflicts and negatively associated with positive parenting practices. Social support functioned as a significant mediator in the relationships between parental stress and positive parenting practices but not in the relationships of parental stress with parent–child conflict or the use of harsh discipline.     

Parental Control and Affect as Predictors of Children's Display Rule Use and Social Competence with Peers

Seventy‐six fourth‐grade children and their parents participated in a study of the linkages among parental control and positive affect, children's display rule use, and children's social competence with peers. Using observational measures of parental behavior and children's display rule use, it was found that parental positive affect and control were related to children's display rule use (including both positive and negative responses). Moreover, the links between parental affect and control and children's social competence one year later (as rated by teachers and peers) were found to be mediated by children's display rule use. Finally, fathers’ behavior was found to be particularly important in the prediction of children's display rule use. The importance of fathers in children's social and emotional development and the importance of examining multiple parental behaviors are discussed.     

Children's Perceptions of Family Relationships as Assessed in a Doll Story Completion Task: Links to Parenting, Social Competence, and Externalizing Behavior

This study was designed to examine the links between parenting, children's perceptions of family relationships, and children's social behavior. Seventy‐four children (M age=6.01 years; 39 boys; 35 girls) and their parents took part in the study. Children completed relationship‐oriented doll stories that were coded for coherence, prosocial themes, and aggressive themes. Parents completed a report of their child's social behavior, a parenting scale, and a number of demographic items. Teachers also completed measures of children's social competence and externalizing behavior. Warm parenting predicted both a child's representation of prosocial themes in the doll stories and social competence, whereas harsh parenting predicted both a child's use of aggressive themes in the doll stories and a child's externalizing behavior. These findings support the idea that children are constructing models of relationships out of the early interactions with caregivers, and that they use these representations to guide their social behavior.     

The Importance of the Peer Group in the Israeli Kibbutz for Adult Attachment Style

This research was presented at the 2005 biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Atlanta, Georgia. The study is based on Yona Weiss's Ph.D. dissertation at the Smith College School for Social Work, directed by Robert Shilkret. We thank Joan Berzoff and Joyce Everett, members of the dissertation committee and all the adults from the kibbutzim who participated in the research. In this study we investigated attachment styles of kibbutz‐raised adults as related to their childhood experiences (392 adults from 50 kibbutzim). Various instruments were used to assess parental and group relations in childhood, adult attachment style, and adult attachment to groups. We found that there were similar distributions of attachment styles among those participants from familial and communal sleeping arrangements. Caring parents and peer groups were associated with secure adult attachment; further, caring peer groups were associated less frequently with insecure styles than less caring peer groups were. Caring peer groups partly compensated for less adequate care by parents. Higher overprotection by the peer group was associated with later social anxiety/ambivalence and personal preoccupation. We raise the question of how the child peer‐group supports or harms adult attachment style.     

Parent and Child Cognitive Representations of Social Situations and Children's Social Competence

The current study examines the relations among parent and child social information processing components and their links to children's social competence. Ninety‐seven kindergarten children and their mothers and fathers responded to open‐ended vignettes that involved conflict with a peer. Goals and strategies for both parents and children were assessed. Results show that there is some consistency between parents and children in the types of goals and strategies that are provided. Further, fathers’ and children's goals and strategies were related to children's social competence but only limited support for children's cognitions as a mediator between parental cognitions and peer competence was found. The implications for the role of social information processing in the development of children's social competence are noted.     

Young people's perspectives of being parented in critical situations: teenage non‐offenders and desisters speak out

This paper considers young people's perspectives of being parented and draws on a study that comprised secondary analysis of 112 qualitative interviews with teenagers who had either never offended or who had ceased to offend for at least a year. Young people's offending behaviour has traditionally been linked to parenting styles, but it is parenting practices that proved central to parental responses to revelations about their offspring's offending. During the interviews, desisters gave accounts of their upbringing and, in particular, the parenting they experienced in one critical situation, namely when their offending came to light. At this point, parents of desisters were reported to be more punitive, more emotional and less measured than they were customarily, and non‐offenders anticipated similar reactions from their parents if they were to offend in the future. The relevance of the findings for professional interventions, especially parenting programmes, and for social workers in child protection is discussed, and suggestions for further research is made.     

Tuning in to Teens: Improving Parent Emotion Socialization to Reduce Youth Internalizing Difficulties

Research in child development suggests that parents' emotional competence and emotion socialization practices are related to children's emotional functioning, including child internalizing difficulties. This research has not yet been translated into intervention or prevention programs targeting parents of older children and adolescents. The current study examined the efficacy of the Tuning in to Teens parenting program in improving emotion socialization practices in parents of preadolescents and reducing youth internalizing difficulties. Schools were randomized into intervention and control conditions. Data were collected from 225 parents and 224 youth during the young person's final year of elementary school (sixth grade) and again 10 months later in their first year of secondary school (seventh grade). Multilevel analyses showed significant improvements in parental emotion socialization and reductions in youth internalizing difficulties for the intervention condition. This study provides support for the efficacy of the TINT parenting program with a community sample.     

Parenting stress and anger: the Hong Kong experience

This paper examines the relationship between parenting stress and anger. A study was done on parenting stress and anger and its form of expression among Hong Kong Chinese parents. Three measures were used in the study: Abidin's Parental Stress Index/Short Form (PSI/SF; 1990), the Maternal Social Support Index (Pascoe et al. 1981) and Spielberger's State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI; 1991). A total of 475 parents of children in a primary school participated in the study. The Chinese PSI/SF and the STAXI showed good inter-item reliability. The study helped to provide a profile of the parenting stress and the style of anger expression of Hong Kong Chinese parents. Stress was not found to be related to the year of the children in school or the general socio-economic conditions of the family. But stress correlated positively with anger expression. Multiple regression showed that anger expression was most strongly related to Trait Anger, the Difficult Child scores and the social support available to respondents. Rather than blaming the parent or the child, it is suggested more services should be provided to enhance the anger management, problem-solving skills and social support of the parents.     

Parental acculturation and parenting in Chinese immigrant families: the mediating role of social support

This study provided updated evidence on how parental acculturation and social support were associated with parenting in a sample of Chinese immigrant families (n = 255). The results from multivariate regressions with a rich array of control variables showed that parents’ cultural preferences for friends, food and TV programmes of other cultures were significantly associated with more parental nurturance and less intergenerational conflict, but had no significant associations with the use of harsh discipline. Neither the length of parents’ residence in the U.S. nor their English proficiency was significantly associated with their parenting behaviours. Perceived social support played a significant mediating role in the relationships between parental acculturation and nurturance, but not in the relationships of parental acculturation with intergenerational conflict. The findings can help social service professionals to have a better understanding of the needs in supporting positive parenting behaviours and promoting intergenerational relationships in Chinese immigrant families.     

The Roles of Parenting Styles and Social Capital in the School Performance of Immigrant Asian and Hispanic Adolescents*

Objective. This study investigates the role of parenting styles and social capital (parental involvement, intergenerational closure, expectation, and trust) in accounting for school performance among ethnic groups and across immigrant generations. Methods. Using data from the Adolescent Health Survey, we estimate fixed‐effects models to analyze students' grade‐point averages. We compare three generations of Asian students and three generations of Hispanic students to the third‐generation (native born with native parents) white students. Results. We find significant differences by both race/ethnicity and generational status in parenting styles and forms of social capital. However, while family socioeconomic status (SES) accounts for the achievement gap between foreign‐born Hispanic and the third‐generation white students, parenting styles and forms of social capital do not moderate any ethnic‐generational differences. Conclusions. Family influences, apart from SES, cannot explain ethnicity‐generation differences in school grades among Hispanic and Asian adolescents. This study provides conceptual clarification and empirical evidence for the significant but independent association between students' school grades and parenting styles on the one hand, and social capital on the other.     

Secure attachment and social and personality outcomes: The moderating role of emerging adults’ autobiographical memories of parents

Schema-congruent positive autobiographical memories of past experiences with parents, a legacy of secure attachment, may operate jointly with secure attachment to predict social and personality outcomes. The current study examines the moderating role of emerging adults’ autobiographical memories of parents on the relations between maternal and paternal attachment and self-regulation, personal distress, and pathological narcissism. Undergraduates (N = 156, 66.7% female, 53.2% White, M_age = 19.3) completed a battery of measures assessing secure attachment, self-regulation, personal distress, and pathological narcissism (vulnerable and grandiose). Participants were instructed to recall brief autobiographical memories of experiences with their parental figures. Later, they were asked to name the primary emotion associated with each memory. These emotions were coded as positive, negative, or neutral in valence. For the final analysis, a positive emotion index was constructed by subtracting the number of negative memories from the number of positive memories. Regression models simultaneously examining four outcomes (self-regulation, personal distress, and vulnerable and grandiose narcissism) were examined for both female and male parental figures. Interactions between secure attachment and positive memories were only significant for maternal model outcomes. Secure attachment was positively related to self-regulation, and negatively related to personal distress and vulnerable narcissism, when more relative positive memories were recalled. Taken together, this study provides support for the continued influence of secure attachment on social and personality outcomes in emerging adulthood. Further, this influence of secure attachment appears buttressed by readily accessible positive (relative to negative) memories of female attachment figures.     

Parenting,family functioning and lifestyle in a new culture: the case of African migrants in Melbourne,Victoria, Australia

This study documented the parenting styles among African migrants now living in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and assessed how intergenerational issues related to parenting in a new culture impact on family functioning and the modification of lifestyles. A total of 10 focus group discussions (five with parents and five with 13–17‐year‐old children; N = 85 participants) of 1.5–2 hours duration were conducted with Sudanese, Somali and Ethiopian migrant families. The analysis identified three discrete themes: (i) parenting‐related issues; (ii) family functioning and family relations; and (iii) lifestyle changes and health. African migrant parents were restrictive in their parenting; controlled children's behaviours and social development through strict boundary‐setting and close monitoring of interests, activities, and friends; and adopted a hierarchical approach to decision‐making while discouraging autonomy among their offspring. Programmes seeking to improve the health and welfare of African migrants in their host countries need to accommodate the cultural and social dimensions that shape their lives. Such programmes may need to be so broad as to apply an acculturation lens to planning, and to assist young people, parents and families in addressing intergenerational issues related to raising children and growing up in a different social and cultural milieu.     

Psychometric properties of an adapted version of the parental sense of competence (PSOC) scale for Portuguese at‐risk parents

Parental sense of competence is one of the central dimensions targeted on psychosocial interventions aimed at supporting at‐risk families. Researchers and practitioners need reliable instruments to assess the parental role adapted for these families. Although the parental sense of competence (PSOC) scale has been frequently used to assess this construct, there is still no adapted version for Portuguese parents. In this study, the reliability, validity and factor structure of the PSOC scale is examined with a clinical sample of 146 mothers from at‐risk families receiving psychosocial interventions for family preservation from Child Protective Services. Results show that the Portuguese version of the PSOC measures three distinct constructs with acceptable psychometric properties: efficacy, dissatisfaction and controllability. As expected, the obtained factors were significantly and positively related to parenting alliance and family cohesion, and negatively associated with parenting stress. In sum, the proposed Portuguese version shows reliability and validity evidences to measure three relevant dimensions of parental self‐evaluation, and it constitutes a cost‐ and time‐effective instrument suited for at‐risk mothers.     

Couple interaction and child social competence: The role of parenting and attachment

The current study examined the association between positive couple interaction and child social competence as mediated through positive parenting and parent–child attachment security. Prospective, longitudinal data came from 209 mothers, fathers, and their biological child. Information regarding observed positive couple interaction, observed positive parenting, and parent–child attachment security were assessed when the child was 2–4 years old, and child social competence was assessed at 5 years old. Mothers and fathers were analyzed separately in the model. Results indicated that for both mothers and fathers, positive couple interaction was indirectly associated with child social competence through positive parenting and parent–child attachment. These pathways remained statistically significant even after child social competence at age 2–4 was taken into account. Results suggest that couple interaction spills over into parenting which impacts parent–child attachment, which is associated with positive child developmental outcomes.     

Parental reaction towards radicalization in young people

This paper focuses on radicalization from a parenting perspective; we propose an approach that sees radicalization as a possibility in adolescent development, and as part of the interaction with the adolescent's social environment and socialization. The aim of the study is to discover how parents react when their adolescent develops extreme ideals. Using 55 in‐depth interviews with young people who have extreme ideals and their parents, the parental reactions towards these ideals are explored. Subsequently, the reactions are categorized according to two dimensions (control and support). This study shows how parents struggle when confronted with radicalization and shift to less demanding responses due to powerlessness, dissociation and parental uncertainty.     

Mothers and fathers in treatment for methamphetamine addiction—Parenting,parental stress,and children at risk

Parents addicted to methamphetamine (“crystal meth”) are likely to be impaired in meeting parental responsibilities, and the developmental settings can be highly disadvantageous for children. Therefore, parenting by methamphetamine‐addicted mothers and fathers needs further exploration, while considering the impact on children affected by parental substance use. In our study, we analysed parenting practices and parental stress as well as children's behavioural problems using standardized assessments. The sample consisted of 87 methamphetamine‐addicted parents in recovery. We obtained data on parents' current substance use and on their psychological distress. Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of children's overall problems. Parents reported high levels of parental and psychological distress, even after achieving abstinence. Especially depressive perceptions of parenthood appeared problematic. While recovering from methamphetamine addiction, parents exhibited a precarious psychosocial situation and problematic parenting behaviour. Dysfunctional parenting practices were evident in both indifferent and overreactive tendencies. Children were at risk of behavioural and emotional problems. Variables associated with parenting showed significant predictive value for children's overall problems, beyond current substance use, and psychological distress. These findings are discussed in terms of a family‐oriented perspective in order to promote parenting capabilities of methamphetamine‐addicted parents and to prevent problematic development of their children.     

Patterns of individual change and program satisfaction in a positive parenting program for parents at psychosocial risk

Despite the evidence of effectiveness of positive parenting programs, little is known about the typology of changes that parents at psychosocial risk undergo after an intervention. We compared individual patterns of change in three parenting outcomes in 256 at risk parents with young children attending the group‐based Growing Up Happily in the Family program delivered in municipal social services. We identified four clusters of individual change: Cluster 1 (30.6%) had negative changes in parental child‐rearing attitudes and parenting stress, Cluster 2 (27.7%) had positive changes in child‐rearing attitudes and negative results in parental perceived competence, and Cluster 3 (24.1%) and Cluster 4 (17.6%) showed overall better results. Residential area, type of social support, and quality of implementation characterized cluster membership. Participants in clusters with better results were more satisfied with the program than those with worse results. Practical recommendations are provided for the successful implementation of group parenting programs in family preservation services.     

Attachment to Mothers and Fathers during Middle Childhood: Associations with Child Gender, Grade, and Competence

Attachment relationships of first, third, and fifth graders with their mothers and fathers, and their associations with self‐perceived and teacher‐rated competence, were investigated. Children rated their attachment security with mothers and fathers using the Kerns security scale. Children's perceptions of academic and peer competence were measured using Harter's self‐perception profile, and teachers also rated children's competence. Girls felt greater attachment security to their mothers than to their fathers, and boys felt greater attachment security to their fathers than did girls. Greater attachment security with both mothers and fathers was associated with children's perceptions of greater peer and academic competence, and this association was stronger for older children. A greater sense of attachment security with both parents was associated with greater competence than a sense of attachment security with only one parent. Teacher‐rated competence was significantly related to attachment security with mothers but not fathers.