Social Pressure and Unfulfilled Dreams Among Chinese and Belgian Parents Two Roads to Controlling Parenting via Child-Invested Contingent Self-Esteem

Chinese parents have been found to use more psychological control toward their children than Western parents. The present study examined whether Chinese, relative to Belgian, parents’ experiences of social pressure to be an achievement-promoting parent and their own unfulfilled dreams could account...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of cross-cultural psychology Vol. 46; no. 9; pp. 1150 - 1168
Main Authors Wuyts, Dorien, Chen, Beiwen, Vansteenkiste, Maarten, Soenens, Bart
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2015
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Child Rearing
Children & youth
Control
Cross cultural studies
Parenting Styles
Parents
Parents & parenting
Psychological aspects
Self esteem
Social Influences
Belgium
China
unfulfilled dreams
social pressure
achievement-oriented psychological control
child-invested contingent self-esteem
parenting
cross-cultural
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Chinese parents have been found to use more psychological control toward their children than Western parents. The present study examined whether Chinese, relative to Belgian, parents’ experiences of social pressure to be an achievement-promoting parent and their own unfulfilled dreams could account for this country-level difference in psychologically controlling parenting. In turn, the association of social pressure and unfulfilled dreams with parental psychological control was expected to be accounted for (i.e., mediated) by child-invested contingent self-esteem. In a cross-cultural sample consisting of 412 Chinese (209 mothers and 203 fathers) and 418 Belgian (209 mothers and 209 fathers) parents of 14-year-old adolescents, we found that social pressure and unfulfilled dreams were related positively to child-invested contingent self-esteem which, in turn, was related to psychologically controlling parenting. Moreover, the hypothesized between-country differences in psychologically controlling parenting and child-invested contingent self-esteem were largely explained by between-country differences in parents’ experiences of social pressure and unfulfilled dreams. Findings are discussed in light of the influence of the broader society on parents’ self-worth and parenting practices.
ISSN:0022-0221
1552-5422
DOI:10.1177/0022022115603125