Adolescent Romance in Rural China: Interactions Between Gender and Parenting

• In Event: Rethinking ways of knowing and learning for justice and inclusion: Cases from secondary and post-secondary education

Proposal

The Purpose of the Study
Adolescent romance is recognized as an important context for an individual’s emotional and identity development in Western culture (Bouchey & Furman, 2003). However, teachers, parents, and society generally oppose adolescent romance as deviant behavior that distracts youth from their studies in China. Under such circumstance, adolescent romance in the Chinese context is defined by educational status. It can happen in adolescence or early adulthood as long as an individual has not finished school or entered tertiary education (Jin et al., 2021). Due to the social stigma, the prevalence of adolescent romance is much lower in among urban Chinese youth than their counterparts in Western societies (e.g., Chen et al., 2009). However, there is a limited understanding of adolescent romance in rural China, including factors that influence involvement in adolescent romance. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the roles of gender and parenting practices in adolescent romance among rural Chinese youth.

Theoretical Framework
The ecological perspective postulates that adolescents’ development happens in their contexts at the individual, family, and community levels (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Guided by the perspective, the present study aims to investigate the roles of gender and parenting practices in adolescent romance among rural Chinese youth. First, it examined the relationship between adolescent romance and gender at the individual level. Second, it analyzed the relationship between adolescent romance and parenting practices that involve parents at the family level, as well as collective parenting practices that involve both parents and other adults at the collective level, which is a characteristic of the unique village culture in rural China. Third, as an individual is affected by the interactions between contexts, the study also investigated the interactions between gender and parenting practices, exploring whether parenting practices had different influences on adolescent romance across gender.

Methods
The Gansu Survey of Children and Family (GSCF) project 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 drawn from the 20 counties. Twenty children were then sampled from each village with only one child per household, along with their families. The data used in this study were from 2004 household survey, 2004 mother survey, and 2009 youth survey. The sample included 1,262 families that fully participated in the three sets of surveys. In 2009, youth were aged from 17 to 23 (M = 20.02, SD = 1.15; 46.2% females).
In 2004, fathers or mothers completed the household survey about family demographics, and mothers also completed the mother survey about parenting practices (i.e., parental warmth, parental punitiveness, parenting in the community, parental social networking). In 2009, the youth completed the youth survey about their age, gender, educational experiences, and romantic experiences. As adolescent romance in the Chinese context is defined by educational status, youth’s romantic status was grouped into three categories: (1) adolescent romance which consisted of individuals who had a romantic relationship in school before the tertiary education level; (2) no romance which consisted of those who never had a romantic relationship; and (3) post-schooling/tertiary romance which consisted of those who had romantic relationships after school completion or entry into tertiary education.

Findings
Among the 1,262 youth, 6.89% had adolescent romance, 81.14% never had a romantic relationship, and 151 (11.97%) had a romantic relationship after they finished school or entered tertiary education. Among those who had a romantic relationship, their ages of having the first romantic relationship were between 14 and 23 years of age (M = 18.69, SD = 1.61). Among youth who had adolescent romance, 75.86% were boys; among those who had no romance, 52.44% were boys; among those who had after-schooling/tertiary romance, 50.33% were boys. Chi-square test with Bonferroni correction showed that girls were significantly less likely to have adolescent romance than boys, χ2 (1, N = 87) = 18.32, p < .001.
Two logistic regressions were conducted to investigate the impacts of gender and parenting practices on adolescent romance, in which gender, parenting practices, and the interactions between gender and parenting practices were independent variables, and demographics were control variables. In the logistic model comparing adolescent romance to no romance, girls were 3.57 times less likely to have adolescent romance than boys (OR = .28, p < .001). Parental punitiveness was marginally and negatively associated with the likelihood of adolescent romance (OR = .77, p = .079). Additionally, girls who experienced parental punitiveness were more likely to have adolescent romance than boys (OR = 1.88, p = .026). In the logistic model comparing adolescent romance to post-schooling/tertiary romance, girls were 4 times less likely to have adolescent romance than boys (OR = .25, p < .001). Although none of the parenting practices dimensions was significantly associated with the likelihood of adolescent romance (all ps > .05), girls who experienced parental punitiveness were more likely to have adolescent romance than boys (OR = 2.43, p = .010).

Contribution
Adolescent romance is generally opposed in China, yet research on its influencing factors is rare. This study contributes to a better understanding of adolescent romance in rural China by addressing the missing piece of gender and parenting practices. First, the findings revealed the prevalence of romantic involvement among rural Chinese youth. Second, it showed that girls tend to save their first romantic experiences for later, whereas boys are more active in exploring adolescent romance, indicating the role of conservative cultural attitudes toward early involvement in romantic relationships among girls. Third, it suggested an interaction between gender and punitive parenting. Rural girls were more likely to pursue adolescent romance with higher levels of parental punitiveness, compensating for unmet emotional needs in their families. Fourth, the association between collective parenting in rural villages and adolescent romance was questioned. This study provides an insight into rural Chinese youth’s romantic relationships and will help to inform future investigation that compares the linkages of gender and parenting practices with adolescent romance among rural individuals to urban individuals or individuals in other social and cultural contexts.

Authors

• Peggy Kong, Drexel University School of Education

• Xinwei Zhang, Yale University