Poster #132 - Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals Within Chinese Parent-Child Dyads: Children’s Drawings and Parents’ Self-Report

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

“Cultural misattribution bias” occurs when researchers characterize western countries as uniformly individualistic and eastern countries as uniformly collectivistic, perpetuating a “deficits by differences” approach (Lee et al., 2014). To combat such bias, research needs to view culture as multifaceted and dynamic and explore within-culture heterogeneity. We spotlighted self-construals as a liaison between macro-cultural models and micro-level individual views of self and others (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Independent self-construal involves perception of the self as unitary and separate from relationships whereas interdependent self-construal involves view of the self as embedded within relationships (Singelis, 1994). Culture influences development of self-construals and both self-construals may co-exist based on relative circumstances (Triandis, 1989). Chinese culture is described as high in collectivism (Hofstede Insights, 2022), which would relate to interdependent self-construals. Chinese culture is also described as high in long term orientation, or pragmatic and adaptable with consideration of changing circumstances and future goals (Hofstede Insights, 2022). This may relate to intergenerational change in both independent and interdependent self-construals. We were interested in co-existence of independent and interdependent self-construals among Chinese children in middle childhood, a time of increased differentiation of self (Harter, 1999). We used a drawing task to assess children’s self-construals because drawing is a common activity in middle childhood with an open format that is often enjoyable for children and may yield information not captured in direct self-report measures (Zvara, et al., 2014). We explored (1) relative emphasis on independence and interdependence in children’s self-construals, and (2) relations between parents’ and children’s independent and interdependent self-construals.

Sixty-three parents (55 mothers, 8 fathers) participated with their 7- to 11-year-old child (Mage = 9.00, SD = 1.31, 35 girls, 28 boys) as part of a larger study. Parents completed the Self-Construal Scale (Singelis, 1994; Chinese translation Hsu, 2002). Children were given 5 minutes to draw a picture, Myself as an Adult. Four drawings were excluded due to content irrelevant to the given theme. Based on previous literature (e.g., Brooks, 2005; Dicarlo, 2000; Lingyun et al., 2020), the remaining 59 drawings were coded by four independent coders for content related to independence and interdependence (e.g., figures of self and/or others, naturalistic and/or materialistic objects; Ks = .52–1.00). We composited across content elements to obtain an independent and an interdependent score for each child. See Figures 1 and 2 for examples of drawings coded as high in independence and interdependence, respectively. T-tests showed that girls’ drawings scored higher for independence than boys’ (t(57 = -3.33, p = .002), whereas no child gender differences were found for interdependence. These findings may be related to altered expectations for girls’ futures within contemporary Chinese society. Paired t-tests revealed that children’s drawings depicted marginally higher independence than interdependence (t(58) = 1.98, p =.053). Children’s independence and interdependence were not correlated, and they were not associated with parents’ self-construals (ps ≥ .248). Future research may further explore utility of children’s drawings as a method and examine gendered socialization mechanisms of self-construals within Chinese parent-child relationships.

Authors

• Jenna Brianne Terry, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author

• Zachary Allen Keith, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Danhua Zhu, University of California - Irvine

• Julie C Dunsmore, University of Houston