Child inhibitory control and maternal acculturation moderate effects of maternal parenting on Chinese American children’s adjustment.

Abstract

The goals of this study were to examine: (a) bidirectional associations between maternal parenting (physical punishment and guilt induction) and Chinese American preschool children's psychosocial adjustment and (b) the role of maternal cultural orientation and child temperament in moderating parenting effects. Participants were Chinese American mothers and children (N = 163, M = 4.56, 53% boys). Mothers reported on their parenting practices at both Wave 1 (W1) and Wave 2 (W2) and their cultural orientations and children's inhibitory control at W1. Teachers rated children's prosocial, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors at both W1 and W2. A Bayesian approach to path analysis was utilized to investigate how parenting, child inhibitory control, and maternal cultural orientations work together to predict the development of children's prosociality and psychosocial problems. Results showed that for Chinese immigrant mothers who were highly acculturated toward the American culture and for children with low levels of inhibitory control, maternal use of physical punishment predicted more externalizing problems in children. Child inhibitory control and maternal enculturation were directly associated with less W2 child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Moreover, physical punishment predicted more internalizing behavior, whereas guilt induction predicted less child internalizing behavior. Maternal guilt induction also prospectively predicted more prosocial behavior but only for children with low levels of inhibitory control. Finally, only one child effect was significant: More W1 internalizing behavior predicted less W2 physical punishment. These effects held after controlling for temporal stabilities of the constructs and demographic covariates. Findings are discussed within the cultural context of the study. (PsycINFO Database Record

Stability of child temperament: Multiple moderation by child and mother characteristics

“…The most consistent moderators, then, were maternal age and (particularly) education. The question that remains is whether maternal age and education are associated with slightly reduced stability because of reporting error (e.g., younger and less educated mothers may be less reliable reporters; Roberts, Burchinal, & Durham, ), whether younger and less educated mothers cultivate less optimal child rearing environments (Bradley & Corwyn, ) such as more hostile and punitive parenting (Yu et al ., ), and/or whether their children carry developmental risks that slightly destabilize their temperaments over early childhood (Gilman, Kawachi, Fitzmaurice, & Buka, ; Huaqing Qi & Kaiser, ). Each of these explanations is plausible and supported by the literature.…”

“…This study examined the stability of child temperament by maternal report over a range of 3 years in substantial numbers of girls and boys, firstborns and laterborns, and terms and preterms, comparing mothers of varying ages, educations, anxiety, and depression status, using a standard and well‐established parent report measure. The study of temperament stability enhances understanding of individual differences in childhood and has implications for other areas of development because child temperament has been integrated into models of developing personality, links to children's perceptions and interpretations of their experiences, and shapes the quality of the child–caregiver relationship, processes associated with socialization, and effects of parenting (Bates, ; Bates & Pettit, ; Chen & Schmidt, ; Paulussen‐Hoogeboom, Stams, Hermanns, & Peetsma, ; Porter & Hsu, ; Shiner & Caspi, ; Yu, Cheah, Hart, & Yang, ).…”

Longitudinal effects of maternal love withdrawal and guilt induction on Chinese American preschoolers’ bullying aggressive behavior

“…Examination of these two dimensions of psychological control and their specific associations with children's bullying outcomes is warranted therefore. Although research on Western children (Casas et al, 2006;Nelson et al, 2013) show similarly detrimental effects of love withdrawal and guilt induction on child aggression, we expected these dimensions to have differential effects on Chinese children based on our conceptual arguments given previously and emerging empirical evidence for the benign nature of guilt induction among individuals influenced by interdependence-oriented cultures (Rudy et al, 2014;Yu, Cheah, Hart, & Yang, 2018).…”

Aggressive behavior during toddlerhood: Interrelated effects of prenatal risk factors, negative affect, and cognition

“…The aforementioned cognitive abilities might serve as moderators between environmental risk and behavioral outcomes: in case of high early life risk, poor cognitive abilities might increase the risk of externalizing behavior problems, while good cognitive abilities could protect against the development of externalizing behavior problems (Masten, 2001). Whereas a number of studies show support for interactions between inhibitory control and parenting as a potential environmental risk factor in the prediction of externalizing behavior problems (Fatima & Sharif, 2017;van Aken et al, 2007;Yu et al, 2018), only one study used a cumulative risk index. Here, it was found that low inhibitory control and low attention both strengthened the positive relation between number of risk factors and a combined score of internalizing and externalizing problems (Lengua, 2002).…”