Reexamining the cultural specificity of controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting in the United States and China with a within-individual analytic approach.

Abstract

This research examines whether prior research may not have detected cultural-specificity in the role of controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting in children’s adjustment because of reliance on between-individual analyses. In two longitudinal studies (Ns = 825 and 934) of early adolescents, within-individual analyses were conducted to examine the reciprocal pathways between children’s reports of parenting and their reports of their adjustment in the United States and China. Increments in controlling parenting predicted decrements in children’s emotional and behavioral, but generally not academic, adjustment over time, with little evidence that this was stronger in the United States than in China. Decrements in children’s emotional and behavioral, but generally not academic, adjustment predicted increments in controlling parenting over time similarly in the two countries. There were few overtime pathways involving autonomy-supportive parenting in either direction in either country.

Measurement invariance in the assessment of parenting practices: A cross-cultural comparison of China and the United States.

“…Within our sample, models assuming configural and metric invariance are tenable across the Mandarin-speaking Chinese and English-speaking parents, suggesting similar interpretations of the seven parenting domains (i.e., proactive parenting, proactive parenting, warmth, supportiveness, hostility, lax control, physical control) across the two countries (the United States and China). Metric invariance is relatively common in the literature (Wang et al, 2007; Xiong et al, 2022). The lack of scalar invariance suggested mean-level differences in parents’ responses; however, scalar invariance is not uncommon in cross-cultural research (e.g., Huang et al, 2011), especially when an instrument was developed in one culture and then translated and adapted for another.…”

“…Results are based solely on parents’ self-reported data at a single time point. As parenting and its impact on youth are not static or universal across every situation (Wang et al, 2007; Xiong et al, 2022), future work should examine measurement invariance of the MAPS over time and validate it with objective measures, such as behavioral observations.…”

“…Wang et al (2007) reported metric invariance for three dimensions of parental control (i.e., psychological control, psychological autonomy support, and behavioral control) in the United States and China, supporting cultural similarities in parental control. Xiong et al (2022) also reported metric invariance for controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting in the United States and China. Additional factor analyses indicate that children from the United States and China differ in their interpretation and report of parental control (e.g., Camras et al, 2017), and there is a normative tendency for Chinese parents to increase their parental control over the course of youth development (H.-Y.…”

“…Results are based solely on parents' self-reported data at a single time point. As parenting and its impact on youth are not static or universal across every situation (Wang et al, 2007;Xiong et al, 2022), future work should examine measurement invariance of the MAPS over time and validate it with objective measures, such as behavioral observations. Latent variable modeling may not be feasible for all future studies using the MAPS due to the requirement for sample sizes/statistical power and the complexity of statistical modeling (e.g., using R and Mplus).…”

“…For example, compared to White families in the United States, Chinese parents are more likely to maintain a hierarchical relationship with their children (Xu et al, 2014), which can be perceived as less warm (Liu & Merritt, 2018). Consequentially, cultural variation in parenting beliefs or perceptions of norms may result in a lack of measurement equivalence across cultural groups (Rodriguez et al, 2023) and introduce bias when comparing parenting practices across cultures (Camras et al, 2017; Huang et al, 2011; Wang et al, 2007; Xiong et al, 2022). Given these considerations as well as the possible differences in parenting practices across geographic regions, using culturally informed approaches that consider societal norms is critical to inclusive research practices.…”