Poster #155 - Play or Early Academics: Variation in Chinese Fathers’ Educational Beliefs and Relation to Young Children’s Outcomes

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Background: Mothers have long been assumed to take on primary responsibilities for children’s rearing and educating. There is very little empirical evidence on how fathers influence young children, as the existing studies have mainly focused on mothers and their role in early child development. Traditionally, Chinese families have been deeply embodied in patriarchy and fathers have been perceived as the master of the family who makes decisions for their children. Compared with their European-American counterparts, Chinese parents had higher expectations for children’s academic achievement and focused more on getting a head start on academics than playing in early childhood (e.g., Jose, Huntsinger, Huntsinger, & Liaw, 2000; Pearson & Rao, 2003). However, as the contemporary Chinese society is becoming increasingly open, parents who have more exposure to educational ideas from other parts of the world, might have “reconceptualized” their beliefs about appropriate early childhood education. Our previous studies indicated that Chinese mothers held progressive and diverse ideas towards play and academic practices in early childhood (Lin & Li, 2018), but how Chinese fathers think and practice about this is still unknown. Study Aims: This study therefore applied a person- focused methodology (latent profile analysis) to explore the variation in Chinese fathers’ attitudes towards play and early academics, and its relation to young children’s developmental outcomes. Participants: A sample of 163 fathers with 3-year-olds (M= 36.8 months, SD = 3.86) was recruited from Shenzhen, China. They completed the Chinese Parent Play Beliefs Scale (CPPBS) to report their attitudes towards children’s play and (pre-) academic activities. And their children were administered with the China Developmental Scale for Children (CDSC) to assess the developmental status in gross motor, fine motor, cognitive, language, and socio-emotional development. Results: First, latent profile analysis (LPA) identified two paternal profiles using fathers’ scoring on play and early academics in CPPBS as observed dependent variables: Profile 1-- “pragmatism fathers”, who placed higher value on (pre-) academic activities but lower on free play; and Profile 2 --“hedonism fathers”, who placed higher value on children’s free play but lower on (pre-) academic activities. Second, Chi-square tests and MANOVA showed that the two profiles had significant differences in paternal education and children’s development status but not in paternal vocation, household income and the number of children. Finally, hierarchical regression analyses found that paternal profiles could significantly predict young children’s gross motor and language outcomes, after controlling for demographic factors. Policy Implications: This two-profile model of Chinese fathers’ educational beliefs suggests that policymakers and practitioners in China should acknowledge the increasingly diverse needs of young children’s families. The association between the two paternal profiles and different developmental outcomes suggest that educational resources should be provided to help Chinese fathers get more involved and to balance academic-oriented activities and free playtime in their young children at home.

Authors

• Xunyi Lin, Fujian Preschool Education College
  Presenting Author

• Hui Li, Macquarie University
  Non-Presenting Author