Considering Children’s Characteristics in Chinese American Mothers’ Attributions, Psychological Well-being, and Parenting Practices

• In Event: Contextualizing Parental Belief Systems: Informing Traditional Models with Contemporary Questions

Abstract

Parents’ attributions of their childrearing experiences to different causes can impact their sense of their role as parents and guide their parent-child interactions (Bugental & Johnston, 2000). Chinese American mothers emphasize their perceived control over child-rearing outcomes, due to a traditional cultural focus on expressing love and care through managing and training their children (Chao, 1994). Attributions of caregiving failures to uncontrollable causes (AFUNC) (e.g., poor parenting skills and high task difficulty) are associated with less positive parenting (Ren et al., 2020); however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We examined: (1) whether Chinese American mothers’ psychological well-being mediated the associations between their attributions and use of psychologically controlling parenting (PCP) and warm parenting; and (2) if the relations between mothers’ attributions and psychological well-being were moderated by their children’s difficult behaviors. Parents’ AFUNC, such as poor parenting skills, may negatively impact their self-image (Weiner, 1985), and subsequently undermine their parenting practices (Bugental et al., 1989). However, children’s characteristics may moderate the effect of parents’ attributions on their parenting. Parents of children with behavioral problems tend to attribute their child-rearing failures to child-related causes (Bugental & Johnston, 2000), which may decrease parents’ self-blame and thus, protect their psychological well-being.

Chinese American mothers (N=270; Mage=37.76 years, SDage=4.46 years) of young children (Mage=4.56 years, SDage=1.12 years) reported their causal attributions for daily caregiving failures (PAQ; Sirignano & Lachman, 1985), psychological well-being (PWBS; Ryff, 1995), PCP (PCOIM; Olsen et al., 2002), and parenting warmth (PSDQ; Robinson et al., 2001). Teachers reported children’s difficult behavior (SDQ; Goodman, 1997).

Results revealed that maternal AFUNC (e.g., to poor parenting skills, the task being too difficult) was associated with poorer psychological well-being, which in turn was related to greater PCP and less warm parenting (Figure 1). Further, the link between maternal AFUNC and maternal psychological well-being was moderated by child difficult behaviors. This mediation was significant only when children displayed low (ab = −0.11, SE = 0.03, 95% CI [-0.174, -0.059]) and moderate (ab = −0.055, SE = 0.02, 95% CI [-0.097, -0.022]) levels of difficult behaviors (Figure 2).

Chinese American mothers’ AFUNC may threaten their self-efficacy and attitudes toward themselves (Bugental & Shennum, 1984). In turn, these mothers may adopt more PCP to regain control over their children (Bugental & Happaney, 2004) and use less warm parenting because they perceive their investment in parenting to be less worthwhile (Georgiou & Tourva, 2007). However, when children are considered highly difficult even by teachers in school, mothers’ struggles with caregiving tasks may reflect their children’s non-compliant behavior. Therefore, mothers’ AFUNC, such as the task being too difficult, may be accurate and protect their positive well-being (Baden & Howe, 1992). In turn, mothers with more psychological resources may use less PCP because they can better attune to their children’s needs (Trang & Yates, 2022) and adopt more warm parenting to build a positive parent-child relationship (Yu et al., 2016). Our findings inform the design of culturally sensitive interventions to promote positive child-rearing beliefs and strategies in Chinese American families.

Authors

• Bumo Zhang, University of Maryland - Baltimore County
  Presenting Author

• Charissa S. L. Cheah, University of Maryland - Baltimore County

• Huiguang Ren, University of Maryland - Baltimore County