Risk and protective processes in the link between racial discrimination and Chinese American mothers’ psychologically controlling parenting.

Abstract

Objectives: Racial-ethnic minority parents' experiences with racial discrimination may function as a contextual stressor that negatively impacts psychological functioning to shape less effective parenting practices, including the use of more psychological control. Moreover, various factors can enhance or diminish psychological functioning in the face of racial discrimination. Accordingly, we examined the associations between Chinese American mothers' experiences of racial discrimination and three subdimensions of psychologically controlling parenting by considering the mediating roles of negative (depressive symptoms) and positive (psychological well-being) psychological functioning and the moderating role of maternal acculturation toward the mainstream culture (AMC) as a protective factor. Method: Participants comprised 226 Chinese American mothers of preschoolers (M age = 37.65; SD age = 4.39). Two separate moderated-mediation models with depressive symptoms or psychological well-being as mediators were tested using maximum-likelihood estimation. Results: Findings revealed significant direct positive associations between racial discrimination and all three subdimensions of psychological control (love withdrawal, guilt induction, and shaming practices), as well as indirect associations through depressive symptoms but not psychological well-being. Importantly, the indirect associations were further moderated by maternal AMC. Conclusions: Results illustrate the importance of incorporating the contextual stressor of perceived racial discrimination in parenting determinant models and examining specific and nuanced processes in understanding the role of psychological adjustment. Support for Chinese American mothers' engagement in and access to various resources in the mainstream cultural context may help alleviate the adverse impact of racial discrimination on mothers' psychological health and ultimately on their negative parenting behaviors. Public Significance StatementChinese American mothers' racial discrimination experiences contributed to their greater engagement in psychologically controlling parenting through their impact on mothers' depressive symptoms. However, Chinese American mothers' high engagement in the mainstream American culture negated the association between discrimination and parenting through their depressive symptoms. These findings demonstrate that racial discrimination impacted mothers' parenting but mothers' behavioral engagement in the mainstream culture can have protective functions for their mental health and subsequent parenting.

Longitudinal pathways linking racial discrimination and Chinese American mothers’ parenting.

“…M. Lee, 2005). Xue et al (2022) also found that Chinese American mothers’ participation in the broader U.S. culture mitigated the link between their racial discrimination experiences and depressive symptoms.…”

“…Regarding mainstream cultural participation, higher levels of English language mastery was found to exacerbate the deleterious effects of racial discrimination on Mexican-origin adults' depression (Finch et al, 2000); in contrast, Asian American college students' greater interaction with other ethnic groups buffered them against the negative impact of discrimination on their community well-being (R. M. Lee, 2005). Xue et al (2022) also found that Chinese American mothers' participation in the broader U.S. culture mitigated the link between their racial discrimination experiences and depressive symptoms.…”

“…We were particularly interested in how Chinese American mothers' various aspects of interactions with their racial-ethnic context (e.g., racial discrimination, acculturation) may interdependently impact the development of these mothers' parenting behavior through their psychological distress. One of the major aims of this study was to identify protective factors that buffer against the detrimental effect of discriminatory experiences on Chinese American mothers' mental health and subsequently on their parenting (Xue et al, 2022). Therefore, we focused on the moderating effect of mothers' behavioral acculturation in the path between racial discrimination stress and depressive symptoms, rather than the interaction between behavioral acculturation and depressive symptoms in predicting authoritarian parenting.…”

“…The third aim was to explore the moderating role of Chinese American mothers’ behavioral acculturation (Xue et al, 2022). Specifically, we examined whether Chinese American mothers’ behavioral acculturation toward American and Chinese cultures moderated the association between their racial discrimination stress and depressive symptoms.…”

“…However, most existing research on the effects of racial discrimination on parenting has focused on parental socialization around issues of race (e.g., Bañales et al, 2021;Dunbar et al, 2015Dunbar et al, , 2022Murry et al, 2009), whereas little is known about the impact of racial discrimination on other general forms of parenting. Even less is known about the relation between racial discrimination and parenting in Asian American families (Xue et al, 2022). Researchers have also called for more examinations of processes through which racial discrimination might impact the family context and potential protective factors that could mitigate the impact of racial discrimination (Noh & Kaspar, 2003).…”