German and Korean mothers' sensitivity and related parenting beliefs

Abstract

This study contributes to a differentiated understanding of maternal sensitivity in cultural and situational context. We investigated differences and similarities in German and Korean mothers' maternal sensitivity. We interviewed 92 German and 100 Korean mothers of first graders about their preference for proactive (anticipating children's needs) or reactive sensitivity (responding to children's direct cues) in different scenarios. Related parenting beliefs were assessed by asking the mothers to explain the reasons why they would prefer specific parenting behaviors. Results revealed significant cultural differences in reactive vs. proactive sensitivity preferences. Overall, German mothers were more likely to indicate that a mother should respond reactively and less likely to report that a mother should act proactively than were Korean mothers. Korean mothers gave preference to both reactive and proactive sensitivity depending on the scenario. With regard to parenting beliefs, analyses revealed that German and Korean mothers who preferred reactive sensitivity mainly explained their choices as attempts to encourage children's development of independence. In contrast, Korean and German mothers with a preference for proactive sensitivity were more likely to report that mothers would assist their children due to their immaturity in dealing with emotional distress. Results are discussed in the framework of the different meanings and functions of maternal sensitivity for socialization in different cultural contexts.

Home Literacy Environment and Early Literacy Development Across Languages Varying in Orthographic Consistency

“…This result differs from previous findings with German-speaking population (Niklas and Schneider, 2013;Niklas et al, 2015). Given our results showing that parents' teaching was less frequent in German than in all other languages (see Table 1), one possible interpretation would be that German-speaking Austrian parents may follow a low involvement strategy, possibly because they value their child's autonomy (Ziehm et al, 2013) and rarely think their child needs much help in learning to read and spell before the beginning of Grade 1. Contrary to our expectation, the strongest association between parent teaching and letter knowledge was found in Greek, not in English.…”

Linking Maternal Emotion Socialization to Boys' and Girls' Emotion Regulation in Korea

“…For the current analysis, one scenario was excluded because it asks about the belief on children's role rather than mothers' role. During the interview, mothers were asked about how a mother should behave in each scenario (see also Ziehm et al, 2013). An example scenario is, "The child probably stumbled over a stone but s/he is not crying."…”

“…Recent Korean studies have reported that intimate parent-child relationship facilitated children's motivation and ability for regulating their own behaviors (Jang & Jang, 2012;Park, Kim, Shin, & Lee, 2014). Also, Ziehm, Trommsdorff, Heikamp, and Park (2013) found that Korean mothers who endorsed proactive sensitivity believed that this could help their children to cope with negative emotions, whereas, in Germany (i.e., a culture where individualistic values are dominant), mothers preferred the use of reactive sensitivity for encouraging their children's independence. In another study on teachers' socialization beliefs, Rothbaum et al (2006) found that, in Japan (i.e., a culture where interdependence is emphasized), teachers preferred to be proactively sensitive by anticipating children's needs in order to promote children's teacher reliance.…”

Supporting Parents: How Six Decades of Parenting Research Can Inform Policy and Best Practice

“…They provide nutrition and shelter, and they care for them when they are ill, injured, or stressed. Although there are cultural variations in the degree to which parents act to anticipate and avoid children's stress or, instead, wait and help them if distressed (Ziehm, Trommsdorff, Heikamp, & Park, 2013), parents seek to protect their children from distress. Their protective behaviors contribute to their children's sense of security, i.e., their development of attachment (Bowlby, 1969;George & Solomon, 2008).…”