1-173 - Contextual and Intervention Predictors of Parenting and Child Development in Urban and Rural China

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

China has been under drastic economic and social changes in the last few decades. It is an ideal country within which to examine how contextual changes affect parenting, which in turn shapes child development. There has not been much research done in China to study these associations from a bioecological or historical perspective. Further, this research area largely suffers from a lack of longitudinal and experimental designs as well as integration of ecological with sociocultural theories. The four papers advance theory and research by examining contextual and intervention predictors of parenting and child development in China. For example, considering the uniqueness of grandparent support in the context of a profound shift from patriarchal tradition to the first (and only) complete generation of singleton parents in the world, the first study investigates grandmother childcare support and its relation to parenting stress in a mixed-method study in Nanjing. The second study examines individual and contextual correlates of fathering and mothering in a large-scale survey of first-graders’ parents in Shanghai. The third longitudinal study investigates the spillover effects of parent work characteristics and climate on parenting and developmental outcomes in an urban sample of adolescents. The fourth study examines how parenting can be improved in rural China in one of the first randomized controlled evaluations of a social intervention in Chinese history. Bringing together four strong studies, this symposium offers innovative perspectives to study Chinese families and enhances our understanding of parenting in the context of social and historical change.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chairs

• Lixian Cui, Shanghai New York University

• Hirokazu Yoshikawa, New York University

Individual Presentations

• Grandmother Childcare Support and Parenting Stress of First-Time Parents in Urban China: A Mixed Method Study from Nanjing - Presenting Author: Cong Zhang, Harvard University; Hirokazu Yoshikawa, New York University; Vanessa L. Fong, Amherst College; Niobe Way, New York University; Xinyin Chen, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, USA; Huihua Deng, Southeast University; Zuhong Lu, Southeast University

• Predictors of Mothering and Fathering Practices in Urban China - Presenting Author: Xuan Li, New York University Shanghai; Xutong Zhang, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University; Lixian Cui, Shanghai New York University; Wen-Jui Han, New York University

• Psychological Wellbeing in the Context of China’s Large-Scale Social and Economic Change - Presenting Author: Ariane Ling, New York University; Niobe Way, New York University; Hirokazu Yoshikawa, New York University; Sumie Okazaki, New York University

• Parenting Intervention in Chinese Families: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Rural China - Bei Liu, China Development Research Foundation; Yisong Hu, Renming University; Presenting Author: Mary Young, China Development Research Foundation