Does the Chinese construct of guan export to the West?

Abstract

This study reverses the usual process of assessing universality by examining whether a construct originating in non-western cultures has functional relevance in the West. The construct of guan or "training" was proposed by Chao (1994) as re ecting important Chinese parenting practices also shared by other Confucian cultures. She proposed that this construct is more relevant to the understanding of outcomes among Asian-American youth than constructs that have been developed in the West, such as "authoritative" parenting. The association among the behaviours incorporated in this construct and other "universal" parenting styles such as parental warmth has not been previously reported. Nor has there been a previous report of the prevalence and perceived desirability of guan behaviours from Western individuals. Participants in the present study were US (N = 118), Hong Kong (N = 171) and Pakistani (N = 98) nursing students. In all three cultures, guan items had adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas ranging from .69 to .76), associated positively with parental warmth (Pearsons' r ranging from .37 to .52), and were seen as attributes of ideal parents. Mothers in all three cultures were perceived as showing more guan than fathers show. The associations between parental guan and the outcomes of perceived health, relationship harmony and life satisfaction were signi cant for the Asian participants. Tests of guan's functional relevance in the West had equivocal results with weak associations to positive outcomes in the West compared to Asia. However, the differences between cultures did not reach statistical signi cance. When the cultures were merged, parental training perceptions predicted a signi cant proportion of the variance in outcomes. Mothers' guan predicted self-esteem in their children, whereas fathers' guan predicted life satisfaction. Although guan may have emerged from a Chinese cultural context, it appears to function similarly in many cultural systems, and may represent the Asian face of authoritative parenting.Cette étude renverse le processus habituel d'évaluation de l'universalité en examinant si un construit issu des cultures non occidentales possède une pertinence fonctionnelle en Occident. La structure de guan ou "entraînement" a été proposé par Chao (1994) a n de montrer des pratiques parentales chinoises importantes partagées également par d'autres cultures d'adeptes de Confucius. Elle a suggéré que ce construit était plus pertinent pour la compréhension des effets de l'éducation sur la jeunesse asiatico-américaine que d'autres construits développés en Occident, tel que l'autoritarisme parental. Il n'existe aucun rapport précédant sur l'association entre les comportements incorporés à ce construit et d'autres styles parentaux "universels", comme la chaleur parentale. Il n'y a pas non plus d'autre rapport sur la prévalence et la désirabilité perçue des comportements guan de la part d'individus occidentaux. Les participants à cette étude étaient des élèves in rmiers des USA (N = 118), de Hong ...

Perceived Paternal Parenting Style and Proactive Coping Strategies of Indian Adolescents

“…Thus it is no surprise to find Indian children of demanding fathers healthy to use healthy coping strategies. Several studies from all over the world specifically from China (Chao, 2001;Leung, Lau, & Lam, 1998), Korea (Rohner & Pettengill, 1985), Turkey (Kagitcibasi, 2005), Pakistan (Stewart, Bond, Kennard, Ho, & Zaman, 2002), Algeria, Saudi Arabia (Dwairi & Achoui, 2010) and on African American community (McWayne, Owsianik, Green, & Fantuzzo, 2008;Randolph, 1995); suggests that parenting styles which delimits autonomy of children were found to have no negative influence on psychological adjustment of children's (Manzi, Regalia, Pelucchi, & Fincham, 2012).…”

Training and Adolescent Adjustment among Academically Gifted European and Chinese American Students

“…Three of the studies mentioned in the previous paragraph [3,28,36] also examined European American peers and in this case found no associations between training and psychological adjustment (i.e., depression, self-esteem, and life stress). Moreover, Stewart et al [36] suggested that positive implications of training for psychological adjustment (as indicated by life satisfaction) may be more likely for Chinese students, but not for European Americans.…”

“…For example, in a sample of adolescent mainland Chinese girls, Wang [25] found that maternal guan predicted less depression via the mediation of their xiao. Stewart, Bond, Kennard, Ho, and Zaman [36] found that both maternal and paternal training predicted higher life satisfaction for female Hong Kong Chinese college students. These mixed findings may be related to age-for example, positive implications of training for psychological adjustment may be more likely for ethnic Chinese adolescents and college students than their younger counterparts.…”

“…Moreover, Stewart et al [36] suggested that positive implications of training for psychological adjustment (as indicated by life satisfaction) may be more likely for Chinese students, but not for European Americans.…”

“…Regarding the previously mentioned quantitative studies that examine the implications of training, Huntsinger and Jose [28], Li et al [3], and Stewart et al [36] used samples of regular students, while the rest used samples with a mix of both regular and academically gifted students. To our knowledge, similar research that examines implications of training for developmental outcomes specifically among academic gifted Chinese, Chinese American, and European American students is lacking.…”