Parenting Characteristics and Child Emotion Regulation in Chinese Families With Children of Middle Childhood: The Role of Gender

• In Event: 2-205 - Gender Roles and Expectancies in Parenting Research Involving Both Mothers and Fathers

Integrative Statement

Research on child emotion regulation (ER) has demonstrated that better ER is associated with positive psychosocial adjustment (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 2010). A majority of studies has focused on the influence of parental emotion socialization on child ER (Morris et al., 2007)), and fewer studies have investigated other parenting factors such as positive (e.g., warmth), negative (e.g., physical control), and mindful parenting. Moreover, most studies have been principally concerned with maternal roles or conducted with Western samples. Indeed, both the gender of parent and of child as well as the cultural context might potentially shape the processes during which parenting influences child ER (Friedlmeier, Corapci, & Cole, 2011; Klimes-Dougan et al., 2007). For example, previous studies with Chinese parents showed that compared with Western parents and Chinese mothers, Chinese fathers are seen as well-reasoned authority figures (Ho, 1986) and their parenting practices such as harsh parenting and physical control are seen as strong behavioral modeling for children, especially to their sons (Chen, Liu, & Li, 2000). Thus, it is important to consider gender-related expectations of mothers and fathers from a cultural lens.

In this study, we examined a series of understudied parenting aspects (broadband negative and positive parenting, mindful parenting, and parenting stress) on child ER in a sample of Chinese children. The final sample consisted of 1,925 parents of children between the ages of 6 and 12 (mean age of child = 9.37 years, SD = 1.46, 52% boys; mean age of parent = 38.47 years, SD = 4.39, 23.2% fathers). Broadband positive (α = 0.61) and negative (α = 0.68) parenting was measured via the Multidimensional Assessment of Parenting Scale (MAPS; Parent & Forehand, 2017). Mindful parenting (α = 0.84) was measured using the composite score from the Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting (IM-P; Duncan et al. 2009). Parenting stress (α = 0.92) was measured via Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF; Abidin, 1995). Finally, child ER (α = 0.77) was assessed via the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC; Shields & Cicchetti, 1997).

Double moderation models examined the role of parent and child gender on the relation between these parenting constructs and child ER using the SPSS PROCESS macro (Model 2). Results (see Table 1) demonstrated that parent gender moderated the relation between broadband negative parenting and ER (β = -.16, p < .001,) as well as that between mindful parenting and child ER (β = .11, p < .05,). Simple slope analyses (see Figure 1) showed that fathers’, but not mothers’, negative parenting) was negatively associated with child emotion regulation, B = -.16, SE = .05, 95% CI [-.25, -.07], p < .001. Also, mothers’, but not fathers’, mindful parenting behaviors were positively related to children’s ER, B = .16, SE = .03, 95% CI [.10, .23], p < .001. Surprisingly, child gender did not play a significant moderating role on any of these relationships. The current findings suggest that specific maternal and paternal parenting constructs in Chinese culture might be distinctly important for children’s development of ER abilities.

Authors

• Zhuo Rachel Han, Beijing Normal University
  Presenting Author

• Nigela Ahemaitijiang, Beijing Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author