This investigation was designed to extend the work of Chao (1994) by examining parenting constructs emphasised in the Chinese culture in conjunction with parenting constructs derived and emphasised in North America. Mothers of preschool-age children from mainland China ( N = 284) and the United States ( N = 237) completed two self-report parenting questionnaires. One assessed dimensions of parenting practices emphasised in China (encouragement of modesty, protection, directiveness, shaming/love withdrawal, and maternal involvement). The second measured specific stylistic dimensions within Baumrind’s global conceptualisations of authoritative (warmth/acceptance, reasoning/induction, democratic participation) and authoritarian (physical coercion, verbal hostility, nonreasoning/punitive) parenting. Mostly invariant factor structures were obtained across cultures for both measures. Results showed that the five parenting constructs emphasised in China were mostly nonoverlapping and independent in both cultures. In addition, the parenting constructs emphasised in China were relatively independent from the constructs emphasised in North America. As anticipated, Chinese mothers scored higher than US mothers on all parenting constructs emphasised in China except maternal involvement. For parenting constructs emphasised in North America, Chinese mothers scored lower than US mothers on warmth/acceptance and democratic participation, but scored higher on physical coercion.

This investigation examined associations between pre- and postnatal reports of 1st-time mothers' depression, anxiety, and marital quality and postnatal reports of infant temperament and changes in feelings of efficacy. Maternal efficacy measured prenatally was associated with concurrent measures of depression, anxiety, marital conflict, and levels of previous child-care experience. Mothers' perception of infant temperament postnatally accounted for a significant proportion of variance in postnatal reports of maternal efficacy. Although individual differences in women's feelings of efficacy were fairly stable, significant increases in maternal efficacy were also observed over time. Findings suggest that 1st-time mothers' beliefs about their ability to perform nurturing routines may changes from a global sense of self-competence to more differentiated perceptions of nurturing efficacy.

a To assess whether subtypes of withdrawal could be similarly identi ed by teachers and linked to peer group adjustment in mainland China, Russia, and the United States, 642 4-to 6-year-old children in these diverse cultural contexts were rated on items re ecting reticent, solitary-passive, solitary-active, and sociable behaviour (cf. Coplan & Rubin, 1998). Linkages of childhood withdrawal to peer group adjustment were also investigated using peer sociometric ratings. Findings, based on multisample con rmatory factor analysis, indicated that separate factors were required to represent the three withdrawn subtypes in each cultural setting. However, US and Russian teachers made ner discriminations between subtypes than did Chinese teachers. Controlling for other withdrawn subtypes, reticent behaviour was uniquely related to lower sociometric ratings in all three cultures. Sociability was associated with higher sociometric ratings in these diverse settings. Findings are interpreted in the light of cultural considerations.

No abstract

Infants' unitary perception of their multisensory world, including learning from people (faces and speech), hinges on temporal synchrony. Despite its importance, relatively little work has investigated the brain processes involved in infants' perception of temporal synchrony. In two experiments, we examined event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to asynchronous and synchronous audio-visual speech in infants. Both experiments showed the early auditory P2 was greater for the synchronously presented pairings and later attentional processing (Nc) was greater for asynchronous pairings. In addition, dynamic stimuli used in Experiment 2 produced a greater early visual response (N1) to the asynchronous condition and an enhanced memory-related slow wave (PSW) later for the synchronous condition. These results suggest that, like adults, auditory-visual integration for young infants begins early during sensory processing rather than later during higher-level cognitive processing. However, unlike adults, infants' brain responses may be biased towards synchrony. Furthermore, effects of attentional and memory processing confirm interpretations of behavioral looking patterns suggesting infants find synchrony more familiar.