A 133-item parenting questionnaire was completed by 1251 parents of preschool and school-age children. Items in this measure were reduced using principal axes factor analyses followed by varimax rotation. Three global parenting dimensions emerged consistent with Baumrind's authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive typologies. Internal consistency reliability was assessed with Cronbach alpha and additional items were deleted. A 62-item instrument was retained, and the global parenting dimensions were subsequently analyzed to assess their internal structures using principal axes factor analyses followed by oblique rotation. For each of the three global dimensions a number of specific factors were identified.

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.

Maternal and paternal parenting styles and marital interactions linked to childhood aggressive behavior as described in Western psychological literature were measured in an ethnic Russian sample of 207 families of nursery-school-age children. Results corroborated and extended findings from Western samples. Maternal and paternal coercion, lack of responsiveness, and psychological control (for mothers only) were significantly correlated with children's overt aggression with peers. Less responsiveness (for mothers and fathers) and maternal coercion positively correlated with relational aggression. Some of these associations differed for boys versus girls. Marital conflict was also linked to more overt and relational aggression for boys. When entered into the same statistical model, more marital conflict (for boys only), more maternal coercion, and less paternal responsiveness were found to be the most important contributors to overt and relational aggression in younger Russian children. Children's aggression in the peer group and its relationship to parenting styles and patterns of marital and family interaction has a relatively long tradition of empirical inquiry in Western psychological literature (see Hart, Olsen, Robinson, & Mandleco, 1997, for a review). Recently, efforts to link maladaptive behaviors to a host of social-psychological outcomes in preschool-age and older children have focused on overt and relational forms of aggression (e.g., Crick, Casas, & Mosher, 1997; McNeilly-Choque, Hart, Robinson, Nelson, & Olsen, 1996). However, exploring ways that different forms of aggression are associated with family processes is a relatively new area of inquiry (Crick et al., in press). Although there is significant knowledge concerning linkages between family processes and overt forms of aggression (e.g., Crick & Dodge, 1994), little

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