Developmental Goals and Socialization Strategies of Local and Immigrant Mothers of Shy Children in Hong Kong

• In Event: 3-017 - Parents' ethnotheories of the nature, causes and management of child adjustment outcomes

Integrative Statement

Parental ethnotheories are the “implicit, taken-for-granted ideas about the ‘natural’ or ‘right’ way to think or act” (Harkness et al., 2010 p. 67) and include ideas about children, the self as a parent, and family life. These cultural belief systems guide caregivers’ actions and may endure through cultural changes and immigration (Rosenthal & Roer-Strier, 2001). Ethnotheories encompass parents’ goals, or the outcomes that parents hope to attain with their children (Harkness et al., 2007) and are influenced by children’s temperaments. Temperamental shyness has become a focus of researchers due to its changing implications for child development in Chinese society.

Shyness in Chinese children was once valued and associated with positive youth adjustment (Chen, Rubin, & Sun, 1992) due to Confucian teachings, which discourage self-promotion (King & Bond, 1985). However, westernization has led to confidence and sociability becoming preferred (Hou, Chen, & Chen, 2005). Nevertheless, much remains unknown about Chinese mothers’ socialization goals for their shy children in Hong Kong – a place where Eastern and Western cultures meet – and how ethnotheories differ between Mainland immigrant and local-born caregivers. Despite sharing the same language and heritage with locals, immigrants face discrimination and having to direct their children’s development in an unfamiliar environment. We expected that local-born mothers would be exposed to more Western influence from the mainstream culture and place more emphasis on children’s individuality than do immigrant mothers.

We conducted interviews to explore the long-term goals and socialization strategies of sixty-eight local (Mage = 38.44, SD = 3.65) and thirty-three Mainland immigrant Chinese mothers (Mage = 37.10, SD = 4.23, MyearsinHK= 8.29) of shy kindergarten children in Hong Kong. The developmental niche framework (Super & Harkness, 1986) guided the study. Thematic analyses and chi-square tests indicated that happiness, morality, educational and professional success were valued goals by both groups (see Table 1). A large proportion of immigrant mothers espoused obedience and filial piety as important goals (X2 (1, N = 101) = 9.00, p=.005), whereas local mothers emphasized autonomy and personal choice (X2 (1, N = 101) = 3.91, p < .05). Across both groups, mothers valued autonomy supportive practices, parental warmth, and quality time together as effective socialization strategies. Immigrant mothers discussed the benefits of social modeling and self-improvement practices (X2 (1, N = 101) = 7.69, p < .01); however, they also expressed concern about not knowing how to support their children (X2 (1, N = 101) = 7.44, p < .01). Discriminant function analyses revealed that immigrant mothers’ patterns of responses for goals and strategies were more distinctive than local ones (see Table 2).

In summary, we uncovered similarities and differences between the two groups. Contrary to common perceptions of Chinese parenting being authoritarian, mothers valued authoritative practices. Immigrant mothers’ goal for self-improvement signifies their commitment to their children but their reported low self-efficacy indicates potential avenues for intervention. Finally, greater effectiveness in our sets of themes predicting group membership for immigrant mothers suggests the development of shared ethnotheories in response to adaptation to parenting in Hong Kong.

Authors

• Jia Li Liu, University of Maryland, College Park
  Presenting Author

• Sara Harkness, U. of Connecticut
  Non-Presenting Author

• Florrie Fei-Yin Ng, Chinese University of Hong Kong
  Non-Presenting Author

• Charles M. Super, University of Connecticut
  Non-Presenting Author

• Linda Citlali Halgunseth, UConn
  Non-Presenting Author