Tackling the Dating “Problem”: Relationship among Parenting, Adolescent Romance, and Educational Attainment in Rural China

• In Event: Rural education worldwide

Proposal

Purpose of Study
While adolescent romance is considered a normative developmental trajectory influenced by parental practices in Western contexts (Gray & Steinberg,1999; Smetana, Campione-Barr, & Metzger, 2006), it is discouraged in the Chinese context. Chinese schools and parents prohibit adolescent dating based on a belief that dating distracts adolescents from their studies, especially in rural areas of China where educational opportunities are limited (Fuligni & Zhang, 2004; Liang, 2009; Mao, 2012; Obendiek, 2016). To date, few studies of adolescent romance have been conducted in rural China. The purpose of the study is to investigate how parental involvement practices influence adolescent dating and whether adolescent dating impacts student educational attainment in rural China. Specifically, we ask:
1. Which parenting practices, if any, have a relationship with whether adolescents in rural Gansu Province choose to date?
2. What is the relationship between rural Gansu Province adolescent dating (or lack, thereof) and students’ educational attainment?
3. Does timing of adolescent romance in high school influence educational attainment?

Theoretical Framework
Drawing on Coleman’s (1988) concept of social capital within families, we examine how parental resources, educational expectations, and beliefs can be transmitted to their children. Chinese parents, overall, perceive adolescent romance as a distraction from their children’s study, and therefore, Chinese parents prohibiting children from dating while in school is the social norm. In contrast, in the West, youth dating is viewed as a form of peer-based social capital, in the sense of it providing youth with relational experience and preparation for more mature romantic relationships in the future. We believe there’s interaction between both parental social capital and peer social capital, which in turn influences rural Chinese students’ educational attainment. Another form of social capital that Coleman discusses is accumulated in community, which includes social norms and sanctions. China is a collective society where people monitor each other’s children and support each other (Dion & Dion, 1996). This study investigates how social capital accumulated within families and in community is transmitted to Chinese rural youth and the relationship with adolescent dating. Additionally, this study examines the relationship between adolescent romance and educational attainment to test if dating is detrimental to higher educational attainment.

Methods
Drawing from a rich longitudinal panel data set of rural China, the Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF) collected in 2000, 2004, 2007, and 2009, we are able to examine parenting practices, dating behavior, and educational attainment over time. The GSCF used multistage cluster sampling with random selection, and is a representative sample of 2000 children in rural Gansu, China. It linked target child data with mother, child, teacher, household, and teacher questionnaires. We restrict the sample to those children who participated in the 2009 survey and whose parents answered the 2004 household and mother questionnaire (N=1807). Sample children were between 12 to 20 years old in 2004, and were 17 to 25 years old in 2009.

We conducted our analysis in three stages. We first ran logistic regression to examine how parental involvement influences adolescent romance, while controlling for child characteristics and family background factors. We used an exploratory factor analysis to generate six parental involvement factors as independent variables. The outcome variable includes two categories: the students who have never dated before, and the students who first dated while in school earlier than tertiary education (excluding tertiary education). Next, we ran multinomial logistic regression to examine if adolescent romance impacted their educational attainment, while controlling for child characteristics, family background factors, child prior educational achievement, and parental involvement practices. Last, we limited samples to those students whose first romantic relationship happened in high school, and ran a set of logistic regressions to examine whether likelihood of high school graduation is different between adolescents who first dated in first year of high school and those who first dated in later years of high school.

Results
Results show parent-child discussion of school-related issues (p = .024) decreases likelihood of adolescent romance. This finding is consistent with our hypothesis and the prevalent idea in China that parents care about education and actively prevent adolescent romance.

Contrary to the prevalent belief that dating has adverse impact on educational attainment, we find that compared to the group of children who have never dated, adolescent romance in school positively predicts educational attainment at various educational levels. We argue that in rural Gansu, for adolescents who choose to date, dating may not be a barrier to educational attainment. Instead, they might have tapped into parental social capital and peer social capital with romantic partners, which positively contribute to educational attainment. In addition, more constructive parent-child communication is associated with higher likelihood of graduating from school (p = .006), while more punitive parenting practices are related to lower likelihood of getting into college (p = .027).

Last, we find students who first date in later years of high school are more likely to graduate from high school than those who choose to initiate romantic relationship in the first year of high school (p = .001). This finding is consistent with our hypothesis and research in Western contexts (Frisco, 2008). A possible explanation is that those who date later may choose to delay dating until they are prepared to balance academic challenges and have better planned for their education in the future.

Contribution to the Field of CIE
Our findings will inform schools and parents of the importance of communication with children and how this is related to positive educational outcomes for children. Moreover, adolescent romance need not be prohibited; instead, punishing children has a negative relationship with educational attainment. In addition, our research targets the context of China where the issue of adolescent romance is under-addressed. Most existing studies focus on Western countries, where parents no longer view adolescent dating as a problem for students (Collins, 2003), which is in sharp contrast to the overall negative Chinese parent perspective. Thus, our study contributes to the field of CIE by highlighting the importance of context to avoid reproduction of knowledge from a Western perspective.

Authors

• Xiaoran Yu, Lehigh University

• Damian Wyman, Lehigh University

• Xinwei Zhang, Lehigh University

• Peggy A. Kong, Lehigh University