No abstract

It was hypothesized that the inconsistent relation between perceptions of parental control and parental warmth found in past studies was due to the undifferentiated measure of parental control. Parental control was distinguished from organization in this study, according to Moos 1 (1976) conceptualization. Parental control was primarily restrictive, dominating, and interfering in nature, whereas organization was functional in maintaining coordination and order in the family. As predicted, both dimensions correlated very differently with parental warmth. Greater parental control was associated with less cohesion and more conflict with parents, whereas the opposite was true for organization. Similar control-warmth and organization-warmth relations were also found in the classroom context between teachers and students.In the extensive research by Rohner (Rohner, 1986;Rohner & Rohner, 1981), parental control (permissiveness-strictness) and parental warmth (acceptance-rejection) have been identified as two major parenting dimensions in different human societies. Subsequent attempts to examine how the two dimensions are related, however, have yielded inconclusive findings. Some studies, for example, have found a negative correlation between parental control and parental warmth (e.g., Rohner & Rohner, 1981;Saavedra, 1980), whereas others have found either no relation (e.g., Schwarz, Barton-Henry, & Pruzinsky, 1985) or a positive correlation (e.g., Rohner & Pettengill, 1985). The purpose of the study reported here was to clarify such inconsistencies by examining the concept of parental control more closely.Parental control may convey both care and interference. Rules set by parents help either to maintain the necessary order and organization in the family or to impose unwanted domination and restriction. The former effect is primarily functional and positive, whereas the latter is dysfunctional and negative. Similar differentiation of control has been emphasized by Baumrind in her studies of parenting (Baumrind, 1966(Baumrind, , 1967(Baumrind, , 1968(Baumrind, , 1971. She distinguished between the control dimension in authoritarian parenting and that in authoritative parenting. Although both the authoritative and authoritarian parents set limits on the child, their methods of control differ. The authoritative parent directs the child in a rational, issued-oriented manner. There is extensive verbal give-and-take in maintaining coordination and order in the family. On the other hand, the authoritarian parent exhorts the child to follow rules without explaining the reasons for setting up these rules. Therefore, the rules are likely to be perceived as unwanted domination and restriction by children in authoritarian families, but as neces-We wish to thank Thomas Berndt and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on the earlier drafts of this article.

Variations in parenting in Chinese families were examined with data from adults in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Ss completed questionnaires that assessed their perceptions of their mothers' and fathers' warmth and control during their childhood. Results revealed sex differences in perceptions of parenting that were comparable in the 3 societies. Mothers generally were perceived as warmer and as less controlling than fathers. Perceptions of parenting also differed for sons and daughters. Daughters perceived their fathers as warmer and as less controlling than did sons. Differences among the 3 societies existed in adults' perceptions of their parents' overall warmth and control. Hong Kong adults perceived both parents as less warm and more controlling than did Taiwan and mainland China adults. These findings have implications for future research on Chinese families and for an understanding of cultural influences on parenting.Cross-cultural research on parenting is valuable in showing which patterns of parenting vary across cultures and which patterns may be universal to the human species. The purpose of our research was to examine important dimensions of parenting in three Chinese societies: mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. These societies share the long tradition of Chinese culture, but they differ greatly in their current social, political, and economic conditions. For our study, large samples of adults in each society described their parents' behavior toward them during their childhood. With these data, we could not only compare parenting patterns in Chinese families with previous data on Western families, but also examine the differences among the three Chinese societies. In analyzing the data, we focused on two sets of questions.The first set concerned sex differences related to parenting. One question involved parental role differentiation, or differences between the behavior of mothers and fathers. Many theorists have proposed that mothers and fathers differ in their positions on the two major dimensions of parenting, warmth and control (see Lamb, 1981;Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Mothers are assumed to be warmer but less controlling than fathers, and research in Western societies has largely confirmed this assumption. When parents describe their behavior or when children describe their parents' behavior, mothers often receive higher scores for warmth and lower scores for control than fathers do (Block, 1984). Researchers who have observed parent-

The prosocial and antisocial behaviors of 2,862 Hong Kong Chinese adolescents were investigated. The major findings were as follows: (a) boys were more antisocial than girls: (b) negative peer influences were significantly stronger in boys than in girls, whereas positive peer influences were significantly stronger in girls than in boys; (c) antisocial adolescents tended to perceive their best friend as antisocial and exerting more negative influences on them, whereas prosocial adolescents tended to perceive their best friend as prosocial and exerting more positive influences on them; (d) antisocial behavior was positively associated with psychoticism and neuroticism; and (e) academic achievement tended to have a positive relation with prosocial behavior and a negative relation with antisocial behavior.

In clarifying the relation between parent-child relationship and parental control, previous research has shown that parental warmth was associated positively with order-keeping parental organization and negatively with dominating parental control. The present study, with separate analyses for fathers and mothers, further examined the relations among adult perceptions of parental dominating control, warmth, indulgence, and family harmony. The subjects were 925 educated Chinese in mainland China, who were asked to recall the child-rearing pattern of their parents. As in previous research, it was found that greater perceived parental dominating control was related to less perceived parental warmth. Results also showed that greater parental warmth and less parental control were related to greater perceived family harmony. These relations were found in analyses for both fathers and mothers. Similarities in the relations among perceived parental behaviors between sons and daughters, and differences in the perceived paternal and maternal treatment of children, are also discussed.We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.