This research compared the effects over time of parents' control and autonomy support on children's functioning in the United States and China. American and Chinese (N = 806) seventh graders (mean age = 12.73 years) participated in a 6-month longitudinal study. Children reported on their parents' psychological control, psychological autonomy support, behavioral control, and their own emotional and academic functioning. Children's grades were obtained. Supporting cultural similarities, in both countries over time, parents' psychological control predicted children's dampened emotional functioning, parents' psychological autonomy support predicted children's enhanced emotional and academic functioning, and parents' behavioral control predicted children's enhanced academic functioning. Supporting cultural differences, the beneficial effects of parents' psychological autonomy support were generally stronger in the United States than in China.

Behavioral inhibition data were collected from samples of 2-year-olds from the People's Republic of China and Canada. Information on child-rearing attitudes and beliefs was obtained from mothers of the children. Chinese toddlers were significantly more inhibited than their Canadian counterparts. Inhibition was associated positively with mothers' punishment orientation and negatively with mothers' acceptance and encouragement of achievement in the Canadian sample. However, the directions of the relations were opposite in the Chinese sample; child inhibition was associated positively with mothers' warm and accepting attitudes and negatively with rejection and punishment orientation. The results indicated different adaptational meanings of behavioral inhibition across cultures. Developmental researchers have reported dramatic individual differences in behavioral reactions to novel social and nonsocial situations during infancy and toddlerhood (e.g.,

In this study, the authors examined relations between reticent behavior in unfamiliar peer situations and experiences in interactions in Chinese and Canadian children. Observational data were collected from samples of children at 4 years of age in the People's Republic of China and Canada. The results indicated that relations between reticent behavior and peer initiations were similar in the 2 samples. The differences between the samples were mainly in peer responses. Reticent behavior was associated with peer rejection such as overt refusal and disagreement in the Canadian sample but with positive responses such as approval in the Chinese sample, particularly when children made low-power initiations. The results suggest that reticent children in China and Canada may have similar as well as different experiences in social interactions.

Observational data concerning children’s compliance were collected from samples of 2-year-olds in PR China and Canada. Information on child-rearing attitudes was obtained from mothers. It was found that Chinese toddlers had higher scores on voluntary committed compliance than their Canadian counterparts. In contrast, Canadian toddlers had higher scores on externally imposed or situational compliance and overt protest than Chinese toddlers. Girls displayed more committed compliance than boys in both samples. Maternal warmth and induction were positively associated with committed compliance in Chinese toddlers, and maternal induction was positively associated with situational compliance in Canadian toddlers. Maternal punishment orientation was negatively associated with committed compliance and positively associated with situational control in Chinese toddlers, but not in Canadian toddlers. The results might indicate specific cultural “meanings” of different forms of child compliance.

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