Intrusive Parenting in Chinese American Immigrant Families: Relations with Cultural Orientations and Children's Adjustment

Longitudinal pathways linking racial discrimination and Chinese American mothers' parenting

Racial discrimination is a salient and chronic stressor for ethnic minority parents that can negatively impact their parenting. The present study used a short-term longitudinal design to examine the link between Chinese American mothers' stressful experiences of racial discrimination and their authoritarian parenting practices, the mediating role of mothers' depressive symptoms, and the moderating role of their behavioral acculturation toward American and Chinese cultures in these associations (i.e., behavioral participation in the American culture and behavioral maintenance of Chinese culture). Participants were 143 first-generation Chinese American mothers (Mage = 38.0 years) with preschool-age children (Mage = 4.6 years; 50% girls). Mothers reported their racial discrimination stress, depressive symptoms, American and Chinese behavioral acculturation, and authoritarian parenting across two time points over a 6-month interval. A moderated mediation model was conducted using structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized associations. Chinese American mothers' depressive symptoms mediated the association between racial discrimination stress and authoritarian parenting. The path between racial discrimination stress and depressive symptoms and the indirect effect of racial discrimination stress on authoritarian parenting were buffered by mothers' behavioral acculturation toward American culture and exacerbated by their behavioral acculturation toward Chinese culture. This study provides the first longitudinal evidence linking Chinese American mothers' experiences of racial discrimination and their negative parenting over time as well as mediating and moderating factors underlying this process. Our findings highlight the need for systemic efforts addressing racial inequalities and fostering positive development in Asian Americans and other marginalized families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Experiences, Perspectives, and Barriers to Physical Activity Parenting Practices for Chinese Early Adolescents

BACKGROUND

Parents play an important role in shaping youth's lifestyle behaviors. This study aimed to investigate physical activity parenting practices (PAPP) for Chinese early adolescents and compare reporting discrepancies between parents and adolescent boys and girls.

METHODS

Fifty-five adolescent-parent dyads participated in 16 paired focus group interviews, and an additional 122 dyads completed questionnaire surveys with open-ended questions. Participants were recruited from 3 public middle schools in Suzhou, China. Qualitative data were analyzed inductively using an open-coding scheme. Frequencies of codes were compared by parent-child role and adolescent gender using chi-square tests.

RESULTS

Eighteen types of PAPP were identified and grouped into 6 categories: goals/control, structure, parental physical activity participation, communication, support, and discipline. These PAPP were viewed as promotive, preventive, or ineffective. Participants had mixed opinions on the effects of 11 PAPP and identified parental, adolescent, and environmental barriers for parents to promote youth physical activity. Compared with parents, adolescents were more likely to value the effects of setting expectation, scheduling, and coparticipation as well as dislike pressuring, restriction, and punishment. Girls were more likely to favor coparticipation and were more sensitive about negative communication than boys. Parents paid more attention to environmental barriers, whereas adolescents, especially girls, focused more on personal issues.

CONCLUSIONS

Future studies need to address both positive and negative PAPP as well as perception discrepancies by child-parent role and adolescent gender to generate more evidence to promote parents as favorable socialization agents of youth physical activity.