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Parental racial–ethnic socialization (RES) can be an important resource for Chinese American youth as they navigate the highly racialized and Sinophobic context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We used time-varying association models to examine Chinese American parents’ engagement in six types of racial–ethnic socialization (RES) practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and their associations with child difficulties across child ages 4–18 years and child gender. Five hundred Chinese American parents (Mage = 43.5 years, SD = 6.5; 79% mothers) with 4–18-year-old children (Mage = 11.7 years, SD = 3.9; 48% girls) reported on their RES practices and children’s adjustment difficulties. Parents’ use of maintenance of heritage culture and cultural pluralism RES did not vary for children at different ages, whereas they used more awareness of discrimination RES for older children than younger children. Parents engaged in more maintenance of heritage culture RES during early adolescence and more concealing Chinese connection RES during middle adolescence with their daughters than sons. Maintenance of heritage culture and cultural pluralism RES contributed to fewer child difficulties during early to middle adolescence, respectively. However, avoidance of outgroups and concealing Chinese connection RES strategies contributed to more child difficulties across most child ages. Awareness of discrimination and awareness of COVID-19 discrimination RES were associated with more child difficulties during early to middle adolescence during the pandemic, with the association peaking at around child age 14. Findings highlight the role of child age and gender in parents’ RES and implications for their adjustment during COVID-19, and inform culturally and developmentally tailored interventions.
Objectives: Racial-ethnic minority parents' experiences with racial discrimination may function as a contextual stressor that negatively impacts psychological functioning to shape less effective parenting practices, including the use of more psychological control. Moreover, various factors can enhance or diminish psychological functioning in the face of racial discrimination. Accordingly, we examined the associations between Chinese American mothers' experiences of racial discrimination and three subdimensions of psychologically controlling parenting by considering the mediating roles of negative (depressive symptoms) and positive (psychological well-being) psychological functioning and the moderating role of maternal acculturation toward the mainstream culture (AMC) as a protective factor. Method: Participants comprised 226 Chinese American mothers of preschoolers (M age = 37.65; SD age = 4.39). Two separate moderated-mediation models with depressive symptoms or psychological well-being as mediators were tested using maximum-likelihood estimation. Results: Findings revealed significant direct positive associations between racial discrimination and all three subdimensions of psychological control (love withdrawal, guilt induction, and shaming practices), as well as indirect associations through depressive symptoms but not psychological well-being. Importantly, the indirect associations were further moderated by maternal AMC. Conclusions: Results illustrate the importance of incorporating the contextual stressor of perceived racial discrimination in parenting determinant models and examining specific and nuanced processes in understanding the role of psychological adjustment. Support for Chinese American mothers' engagement in and access to various resources in the mainstream cultural context may help alleviate the adverse impact of racial discrimination on mothers' psychological health and ultimately on their negative parenting behaviors.
Public Significance StatementChinese American mothers' racial discrimination experiences contributed to their greater engagement in psychologically controlling parenting through their impact on mothers' depressive symptoms. However, Chinese American mothers' high engagement in the mainstream American culture negated the association between discrimination and parenting through their depressive symptoms. These findings demonstrate that racial discrimination impacted mothers' parenting but mothers' behavioral engagement in the mainstream culture can have protective functions for their mental health and subsequent parenting.
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