Adolescent romance in a collectivistic society: The influence of gender and parenting on adolescent romance in rural China

• In Event: College students and young adults

Proposal

The Purpose of the Study
Adolescent romance is considered a normative developmental trajectory in many societies. However, it is often referred to as “puppy love” and seen as detrimental to schooling in Chinese society (Wang & Gao, 2012; Zhang, 2006; Zhou et al, 2016). In rural Chinese communities, emphases on education for upward social mobility and marriage for old-age support create a tension between the prevention of adolescent romance on one hand, and anxiety toward late marriage on the other. Surprisingly, there has been little research on romantic relationships among adolescents in rural China, including the timing and reasons adolescents engage in romantic relationships. In the current paper, we investigate the influence of gender and parenting practices on adolescent romance in rural China.

Theoretical Framework
The current paper draws upon attachment theory to explain the role of parenting practices on adolescent romance. Attachment theory stresses that adolescents with warm and supportive parenting expect more intimacy from others and are more willing to form romantic relationships than their counterparts who have been subjected to coercive parenting (Collins & Sroufe, 1999; Gray & Steinberg, 1999; Simpson, Collins, Tran, & Haydon, 2007). The role of parental school involvement is complicated in the Chinese context. While it can reveal parental care and warmth, parental emphasis on school can discourage adolescents’ engagement in romantic romance. In addition, given that attachment theory developed in the Western context may not fully capture parenting practices in rural China, collective parenting practices typical in tight-knit communities are also investigated in the current study.

Research methods
The data were drawn from the Gansu Survey of Children and Family (GSCF), including the 2004 household survey, 2004 mother survey, 2004 teacher survey, and 2009 youth survey. GSCF applied a multistage cluster sampling with random selection at each stage. Twenty counties were first drawn from all rural counties in Gansu province, and 100 villages were further drawn from these counties. Twenty children were then sampled from each village with only one child per household, along with their families, teachers, principals, and other community members. The current study included 1,444 youth with their mothers and teachers. In 2009, youth were between 17 and 25 years old (M = 20.07, SD = 1.16).
Romantic relationship was measured by retrospective questions querying youth’s romantic and educational experience. Based on their answers, youth were categorized into three romantic relationship groups: (1) those who had never had romantic relationships; (2) those who had romantic relationships in school before the tertiary education level; (3) and those who had romantic relationships only after the completion of school or during their tertiary education level. Gender was measured as a dichotomous variable. Parenting practices were measured by collective parenting, including collective parenting in the community and parental knowledge of social relations, and general parenting practices, including parental reasoning, parental warmth, parental school engagement, and parental punitiveness. Multinomial logistic regressions were conducted to investigate the influence of gender, parenting practices, and interactions between gender and parenting practices on the likelihood of adolescent romance.

Results
In this sample, only 7.34% (n = 106) had engaged in adolescent romance, and 15.37% (n = 222) first experienced romance while in tertiary education or after school. Most individuals, 77.29% (n = 1,116) had not yet experienced romance. Girls were less likely to experience adolescent romance than boys. Girls were 3 times more likely than boys to have no romantic experience as compared to having adolescent romance, p < .001. They were 4.68 times more likely than boys to experience a romantic relationship for the first time in tertiary education or after school as compared to having adolescent romance, p < .001.
Collective parenting in the community, parental knowledge of social relations, parental reasoning, and parental punitiveness did not significantly influence the likelihood of having adolescent romance. With each unit of increase in parental warmth, individuals were 13% less likely to have no romance than to experience adolescent romance, p = .044. With each unit of increase in parental school engagement, individuals were 1.33 times more likely to have no romance than to experience adolescent romance, p = .021. However, parental warmth and parental school engagement did not significantly impact whether they were more likely to have adolescent romance or have romantic relationships in tertiary education or after school.
The interactions between gender and parenting practices were not significant among boys. However, some interactions were significant among girls. With each unit of increase in parental knowledge of social relations, girls were 1.85 times more likely to have romance in tertiary education or after school romance relative to having adolescent romance, p = .020. With each unit of increase in parental warmth, girls were 23% less likely to have no romance, p = .073, and 24% less likely to have tertiary education or after school romance, p = .090, relative to adolescent romance. With each unit of increase in parental school engagement, girls were 1.85 times more likely to have experienced no romance, p = .005, and 1.61 times more likely to have tertiary education or after school romance relative to adolescent romance, p = .050.

Significance and Contribution to the Field of CIE
With a sensitivity to Chinese collectivism, the current paper combined and applied attachment theory developed in the Western contexts and an emphasis on Chinese rural culture. Therefore, it contributes to the field of CIE by disentangling the influence of contextual factors. It investigated not only parenting practices within families but also in the community, which is unique to collectivistic societies, including China. It examined not only the influence of gender and parenting practices but also the interactions between gender and parenting practices, which reveals different perspectives toward educating boys and girls in rural China. Findings showed that parental warmth increased the likelihood of adolescent romance, indicating a potential adaptive component in adolescent romance. In this sense, the current paper challenges the predominant fear among teachers and parents of adolescent romance, which suggests that a change in their attitudes toward adolescent romance may be in order.

Authors

• Xinwei Zhang, Lehigh University

• Damian Wyman, Lehigh University

• Xiaoran Yu, Lehigh University

• Peggy A. Kong, Lehigh University