Examination of Chinese Immigrant Parents’ Beliefs About Children’s Social Development: A Mixed Methods Study

• In Event: 3-024 - Associations Between Early Education and Care and Parenting Attitudes and Behaviors With Three Diverse Samples

Integrative Statement

Chinese immigrants are the fastest-growing foreign-born group in the US (Migration Policy Institute, 2015), and the exponential growth in the number of Chinese living in the US has contributed to the diversity of families served by Head Start (Golden, 2011). Chinese immigrant children seem to prosper in academics but also experience high levels of internalizing behaviors, poor psychological and social adjustment (Qin, 2008). During early childhood, parental beliefs appear to play a significant role in children’s social development (Fisher et al., 2008). Research suggests that Chinese and Westerners have different expectations of children’s social behaviors, leading to dissimilar assessments of children’s social and emotional development by Chinese parents and their children’s Western teachers. Conflicting cultural views about early education frustrate parents, who struggle to reconcile very different cultural norms and expectations (Bulotsky-Shearer et al., 2016). Chinese immigrant parents and their children face challenges related to fitting into their new social settings (Xie et al., 2004). However, limited research has been conducted to understand Chinese immigrant parents’ belief systems and child-rearing practices. Thus, the present study sought to provide a deeper understanding of Chinese immigrant parents’ beliefs about children’s social behaviors, with a focus on how those beliefs may differ from a more mainstream Western perspective and how these beliefs and parenting practices change (or do not change) during their children’s enrollment at Head Start.

A mixed methods approach was utilized to focus multiple lenses on better understanding Chinese immigrant parents’ beliefs and practices and implications for children’s social competencies. For the quantitative phase, the study used the primary data that were collected from four Head Start programs with parents who self-identified as Chinese (N = 213). The following questionnaires were used to examine the associations between parents’ play beliefs, levels of acculturation, child-rearing ideologies, and children’s social competencies: (1) Chinese Parent Play Beliefs Scale (PPBS; Fogle & Mendez, 2006); (2) Vancouver Index of Acculturation (VIA; Ryder et al., 2000); (3) Chinese Child-Rearing Ideology Questionnaire (CCIQ; Chao, 1994); and (4) Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS; Fantuzzo et al., 1998). Zero-order correlations among key variables were examined (see Table 1). In addition, path analysis will be conducted to determine the relations between these variables. A series of explanatory factor analyses of the PIPPS that measures children’s positive and challenging social behaviors revealed contrasting patterns in the teacher and the original PIPPS studies (see Table 2). Guided by these different patterns uncovered during analysis of various variables in the questionnaires, focus group protocol has been created. Four focus groups will be conducted in fall 2018 with 10 participants per each Head Start site selected by the maximum variation sampling approach (Creswell, 2005). Analyses of both quantitative and qualitative phases will be presented by exploring a more nuanced interpretation of Chinese immigrant parental perceptions of children’s social behaviors and changes in parental beliefs and attitudes impacted by the US early education system, such as Head Start. Implications for supporting Head Start programs that serve Chinese immigrant families will also be described.

Authors

• Sunah Hyun, Tufts University
  Presenting Author

• Christine M McWayne, Tufts University
  Non-Presenting Author