Poster #153 - Parents’ Peer Restriction During Early Adolescence in the United States and China

• In Event: 2-002 - Special Poster Session 05 with Continental Breakfast Reception
  In Poster Session: PS 05 - International Section

Integrative Statement

Controlling parenting, which is characterized by parents’ pressure, intrusiveness, and dominance, appears to undermine youth’s psychological functioning similarly in the United States and China (e.g., Cheung et al., 2016). The breadth of this similarity is unclear, however, as there has been limited attention to controlling parenting in specific domains, for which American and Chinese youth’s views of the legitimacy of parents’ authority may vary (e.g., Smetana, 2002). As a step toward addressing this issue, this research focused on controlling parenting in the peer domain (e.g., limiting time with particular friends).

Western youth view the peer domain as one that should generally be under their (vs. parents’) authority (e.g., Smetana & Asquith, 1994). This may be particularly true during adolescence when peers become more central (e.g., Smetana et al., 2003). It is thus not surprising that parents’ peer restriction contributes to delinquent behavior among Western adolescents (e.g., Keijers et al., 2012). However, the Chinese collectivistic culture emphasizes the socialization function of the peer group in youth’s acquisition of social standards (e.g., Chen, 2000). Consequently, Chinese (vs. American) youth may view peer restriction as more legitimate, which may not only lead parents to use it more, but also reduce its negative effects.

We examined controlling parenting in the peer domain among American and Chinese youth (N = 934; mean age = 12.67 years) followed over three time points in early adolescence (i.e., fall of 7th grade, spring of 7th grade, and fall of 8th grade). Youth reported on parents’ unselective (e.g., “Limit how much you communicate over the phone or computer with friends”) and selective (e.g., “Tell you that you cannot spend time with a specific friend”) peer restriction at each time point (αs > .77). Youth also reported on their delinquent behavior (e.g., “I’ve been a part of physical fight;” αs > .79) and anxiety (e.g., “I had trouble making up my mind” αs > .92) as well as depressive (e.g., “I felt miserable or unhappy;” αs >.92) symptoms. SEM indicated the measures possessed full or partial invariance across the two countries.

Growth-curve modeling with two-group SEM showed that although American parents used more unselective peer restriction at the beginning of 7th grade than did Chinese parents, Δχ2 = 19.62, p < .001, only Chinese parents increased their unselective and selective peer restriction over time (see Figure 1), Δχ2s > 5.68, ps < .05. Bi-directional cross-lagged two-group SEM revealed that the undermining effects of parents’ unselective and selective peer restriction on youth’s psychological functioning over time were consistently similar in the United States and China (see Table 1). Moreover, parents in both countries heightened their peer restriction responding to children having trouble (e.g., heightened delinquency).

In sum, although parents increased their peer restriction over early adolescence, in China, but not the United States, such controlling parenting functioned similarly in the two countries in terms of its role in youth’s psychological functioning. The findings are in line with universalist perspectives (e.g., Ryan & Deci, 2000) on the undermining role of parents’ control.

Authors

• Yu Xiong, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author

• Lili Qin, National University of Singapore
  Non-Presenting Author

• Meifang Wang, Shandong Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eva Pomerantz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Non-Presenting Author