Parental Autonomy Granting and School Functioning among Chinese Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Adolescents’ Cultural Values

Abstract

School adjustment and achievement are important indicators of adolescents’ well-being; however, few studies have examined the risk and protective factors predicting students’ school adjustment and achievement at the individual, familial, and cultural level. The present study examined the influences of individual and familial factors and cultural values on Chinese adolescents’ school functioning (e.g., school adjustment and grades). It also tested whether cultural values moderated the relationship between parenting and adolescents’ school functioning. Self-report data were collected from a stratified random sample of 2,864 adolescents (51.5% female, mean age = 15.52 years, grade 6th – 12th) from 55 classrooms, in 13 schools in Shanghai, China. Results showed that self-esteem (bse→adj = 0.05, SE = 0.01, p < 0.001; bse→grades = 0.08, SE = 0.02, p < 0.001), parent–adolescent conflict (bconflict→adj = -0.03, SE = 0.00, p < 0.001; bconflict→grades = -0.04, SE = 0.01, p < 0.001), and conformity to parental expectations (bconform→adj = -0.03, SE = 0.02, p < 0.05; bconform→grades = 0.10, SE = 0.04, p < 0.05) all had significant effects on both school adjustment and grades, respectively. More importantly, results showed that independent self-construal moderated the relationship between parental autonomy granting and adolescents’ grades (bindepxautom = 0.06, SE = 0.02, p < 0.01). The findings suggest that cultural values may influence adolescents’ appraisal of parental autonomy granting, which then impacts their school functioning.

Relations of Chinese Mothers’ Cultural Values and Parental Control to Early Adolescents’ Self-Construals

“…Another contribution of this study was that our findings provided empirical evidence with mainland Chinese samples to support the coexistence of independent and interdependent SCs. We found that on average Chinese adolescents tended to endorse both types of SC, which was consistent with previous findings arguing for the coexistence of independent and interdependent SCs (Sharkey & Singelis, 1995; C. Wang et al, 2017; Yamada & Singelis, 1999), although they did endorse interdependent SC more strongly than independent SC.…”

“…These findings suggest that, similar to individualism-collectivism (e.g., Triandis, 1995) and autonomy-relatedness (e.g., Rothbaum & Trommsdorff, 2007), independent and interdependent SCs should not be depicted as mutually exclusive or as opposite ends of a single continuum. It is possible that for middle-class mainland Chinese adolescents, there is more internal consistency between independent and interdependent SCs than them being bipolar (also see Li et al, 2010; C. Wang et al, 2017).…”

“…Leung, 2010; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Although independent SC is more common in Western cultures and interdependent SC is more common in East Asia, it is important to note that individuals within a cultural context will vary in their SCs (Fiske et al, 1998; Markus & Kitayama, 1994; Okazaki, 2018) and that independent and interdependent SCs can coexist (Sharkey & Singelis, 1995; C. Wang, Do, Bao, Xia, & Wu, 2017; Yamada & Singelis, 1999).…”

Parenting Practices, Family Obligation, and Adolescents’ Academic Adjustment: Cohort Differences with Social Change in China

“…However, in 2018, when individualistic values and behaviors had become more accepted and appreciated, adolescents could take advantage of the psychological autonomy granted by their parents, which in turn promoted the adolescents to achieve better academic adjustment. In addition, the relation between psychological autonomy granting and academic adjustment may be moderated by other factors, such as adolescents’ cultural values, which may account for the results above (Wang, Do, Bao, Xia, & Wu, 2017).…”

Parent work–life conflict and adolescent adjustment during COVID-19: Mental health and parenting as mediators.

“…It is likely that those findings may not generalize to Chinese cultural context. Indeed, studies on the role of parenting practices in relation to youth outcomes in Chinese families have yield mixed findings, suggesting the importance of understanding family functioning within a cultural context (Cheung & McBride-Chang, 2008; Wang et al, 2017). Therefore, the aims of the present study were to examine the effects of parental work–life conflict, as a contextual stressor on youth mental health, including both positive mental health (measured by covitality, or the co-occurrence of positive traits) and mental health symptoms, and academic engagement among a sample of highly educated parents and their adolescents in China.…”