Do Child-Rearing Values in Taiwan and the United States Reflect Cultural Values of Collectivism and Individualism?

Abstract

Eighty-one middle-class mothers of 3-and 4-year-old children from urban cities in Taiwan and the United States were interviewed about their child-rearing values. Three methods were used to assess values: openended probes, Likert-type ratings, and ordering of values according to importance. Child-rearing values could be grouped into five broad categories: individuality, achievement, proper demeanor, decency, and connectedness. U.S. mothers' child-rearing values were somewhat consistent with an individualistic orientation, yet they considered values associated with connectedness to be most important. Taiwanese mothers' child-rearing values were less focused on any specific category. Findings from the three methods suggest that child-rearing values in Taiwan and the United States cannot be dichotomized as collectivist or individualist. Mothers in the two societies embraced both individualist and collectivist values.

Traditional school bullying and cyberbullying in Chinese societies: Prevalence and a review of the whole-school intervention approach

“…This cultural value is clearly observed in most Chinese societies. As such, school bullying has often been perceived as a collective conduct in Chinese societies (Cheng, Chen, Ho, & Cheng, 2011;Chui & Chan, 2015;Huang, Hong, & Espelage, 2013) for the purpose of maintaining group conformity (Wang & Tamis-Lemonda, 2003). Therefore, social exclusion, as a form of peer victimization, has found to be relatively common in Chinese schools (e.g., Chen, Rubin, & Li, 1995;Rubin, Chen, & Hymel, 1993;Schwartz, Chang, & Farver, 2001).…”

What Does it Mean to be Prosocial? A Cross-Ethnic Study of Parental Beliefs

“…First, theory and research suggest that parenting beliefs underlie behaviors and reflect the broader sociocultural and ecological context in which parents raise their children (Bornstein and Cheah, 2006;Harkness et al, 2000;Parmar et al, 2004). Indeed, parental beliefs differ across groups in ways consistent with broad cultural variables (e.g., Rosenthal and RoerStrier, 2001;Wang and Tamis-LeMonda, 2003). Thus, examining parental beliefs might provide insights on how cultur ally shared beliefs are translated into children's prosocial socialization.…”

Cultural Perspectives on the ‘Whats?’ and ‘Whys?’ of Parenting

“…of Parenting 323 Human Development 2003;46:319-327 In line with this diversity, we found that middle-class mothers from Taiwan, Greece, and the US embraced a multidimensional model of development when probed about the values that were most important to instill in their preschool children. In the context of specific cultural emphases, we uncovered enormous withingroup and intraindividual variation in mothers' childrearing values [TamisLeMonda, Wang, Koutsouvanou, & Albright, 2002;Wang & Tamis-LeMonda, 2003]. Mothers in all three societies endorsed both independent (e.g., assertiveness, independence, curiosity) and interdependent values (e.g., sharing and respect for others).…”

“…In certain instances, independence and interdependence exist in opposition, but in other cases they should be viewed as synergistic. For example, in our research on parents' childrearing values [Wang & Tamis-LeMonda, 2003], many mothers alluded to meaningful connections between interdependent and independent values. One US mother, for example, stated how important it was for her child to share, display compassion, and get along with others (which at first glance was taken as an 'interdependent' orientation).…”