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

Fri, March 22, 10:00 to 11:30am, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 3, Room 323

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Decades of developmental research have been heavily focused on examining child development within micro-contexts of parent-child interactions, but increasing number of studies have shown that macro-contexts such as ideologies, beliefs, and economic systems are also critical in shaping parenting practices and child development (Chen, et al., 2012). Scholars have long argued that macro-contexts are subject to continuous historical changes and impact both individual development as well as the environment in which the development is embedded (Bronfenbrenner, 1994; Elder & Shanahan, 2006). China, with its drastic economic and social transformations in the past few decades, provides a unique opportunity to examine how changing macro-context shapes parenting and child development.

The four papers in this symposium examine parenting and child development in context of rapid social change in China and their implications. The first paper analyzed interview data from a 10-year longitudinal study with two cohorts of mothers and found that the mothers’ beliefs about gender change across child developmental ages and across historical time periods. The second paper examined mothers’ perception of social changes and how it affected their children’s psychological and academic outcomes through parenting styles. The third paper examined the parent narratives about aspects of their children’s character that the parents worried were unsuited to the demands of thriving in a new societal context of increased academic and social competition. The final paper focused on whether the recent trend for parents to enroll their kindergarten-age children in extensive extracurricular activities are as beneficial for child development as parents expect.

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