Perceptions of Social Changes, Parenting, and Child Outcomes: A Mediation Model

• In Event: 2-069 - How changing macro-contexts shape child development and parenting: Examples from China

Integrative Statement

It has long been argued that social and cultural changes can shape child development (Greenfield, 2009), as well as parental socialization goals, beliefs, and parenting styles (e.g., Kagitcibasi & Ataca, 2005). China has carried out a large-scale economic reform toward a market economy in the past four decades, which brought both challenges and opportunities to individuals. While the market economy allows individuals to have more freedom and autonomy in work, a market-oriented environment may also contain risk, uncertainty, and competition. Along with the economic reform, western values and life styles have been introduced into China and quickly get accepted. In order to study how parents’ experiences with social changes relate to their parenting styles in China, Chen et al., (2010) assessed parents’ perceptions of changes in work, as indicated by work-related risk and adversity (“When I reviewed the past five years, I have a higher risk of losing my job”), work-related opportunities and prospect (“I must learn more advanced skills and acquire new knowledge for my work’’), and acceptance of new values and life styles (“My views and values are more influenced by foreign countries”). The researchers found that parents who perceived more challenges and opportunities in work due to social changes were more likely to use warm and sensitive parenting and to encourage their children to pursue independence (Chen et al., 2010).

The present study aimed to expand previous research and examine the mediating role of parenting behaviors between parents’ perceptions of social change and child developmental outcomes. The sample included 1264 children (564 boys) at the 7th grade and their mothers in Anhui province, China. Mothers reported their perceived social change (Chen et al., 2010). Children reported their loneliness, school attitudes, and their perceived maternal parenting behaviors (adapted from Block, 1981; Schaefer,1956), which were aggregated to positive and negative parenting behaviors. Children’s academic achievement was rated by teachers.

Conceptual model was summarized in Figure 1. Gender was included as a control variable. It was found that positive parenting mediated the effects of work-related risk and adversity on depression (indirect effect = .01, se =.01, p = .05), and school attitudes (indirect effect = -.02, se = .01, p < .05). Positive parenting also mediated the effects of work-related opportunity and prospect on depression (indirect effect = -.02, se = .01, p < .001), school attitudes (indirect effect = .04, se = .01, p < .01), and academic achievement (indirect effect = .02, se = .01, p < .05). Negative parenting mediated the effects of work-related opportunity and prospect on depression (indirect effect = -.01, se = .00, p < .05) and academic achievement (indirect effect = .02, se = .01, p < .05). In sum, the results suggest that mothers who perceived more risk in their work were less likely to use positive parenting, which might relate to children’s maladjustment. In contrast, mothers who perceived more work opportunities tended to use more positive parenting and less negative parenting, which was associated with more adaptive outcomes.

Authors

• Siman Zhao, University of Dayton
  Presenting Author

• Xinyin Chen, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dan Li, Shanghai Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Junsheng Liu, East China Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author