Parenting Profiles and Children's School Readiness in Urban China

• In Event: Changing China, Changing Education: Cultural Clashes and Educational Inequality in School

Abstract

This study explored family dynamics and their effect on young children’s developmental outcomes via associations of parenting profiles with children’s school readiness in a Chinese context. Dyadic interactions (mother-daughter, mother-son, father-daughter, father-son) and combined effects of both parents were explored. The study was guided by the question: What are the associations of parenting profiles with children’s school readiness?
Quantitative survey study accompanied by child assessment was used. Participants were recruited from a local kindergarten serving families in a neighborhood in the city center of Shenzhen. Eighty-six pairs of Chinese parents completed the Chinese Parenting Style Questionnaire (CPSQ), and their children, all from the Kindergarten-3 cohort, were administered the Bracken School Readiness Composite (BSRC) and Preschool and Primary Chinese Literacy Scale (PPCLS).
Parents profiles were classified through cluster analysis, with the majority of parents being easygoing, followed by tiger parents and supportive parents (Author, 2017). Preliminary box plot analysis showed varied relationships between combinations of parenting profiles and children’s school readiness results: Supportive-supportive dyads were consistently associated with better school readiness in children compared with dyads with parental agreement but non-supportive parenting profiles. MANOVA analysis found a significant main effect of child gender on the PPCLS, F (1, 85) = 5.07, p < .05, η2 = .068, and a significant interaction between child gender and maternal (F (2, 84) = 4.45, p < .05, η2 = .11) and paternal (F (2, 84) = 4.22, p < .05, η2 = .11) parenting profiles on the BSRC, respectively. Estimated marginal means plot found that: Supportive mothers and fathers were associated with higher scores in girls and lower scores in boys; Tiger fathers, but not tiger mothers, were associated with better outcomes in both boys and girls.
This study supported the proverb, “strict to the boy, care for the girl (窮養兒子富養女)”, and found significant interactive effects with child gender and parenting profiles, echoing the findings in a meta-analysis where maternal warmth showed strong association with girls’ achievement but no such effect for boys (Pinquart, 2016). The effectiveness in tiger fathers but not tiger mothers may be partially explained by the division of the parental role in traditional Chinese society, “stern father and compassionate mother (嚴父慈母)”, where fatherhood was the authority and head of the family (Ho, 1987) and the paternal role established as an educator-disciplinarian in addition to a provider (Ho, 1981). It has been the mainstream of Chinese families for a thousand years, and has been part of its social and cultural underpinnings.
Findings have implications for parents and practitioners of the role of differentiated educating styles and practices with boys and girls in improving the development of children.

Keywords: Chinese parenting profiles, Tiger parenting, family dynamics, dyadic interactions, school readiness

Authors

• Sha Xie, University of Hong Kong

• Hui Li, University of Hong Kong