Jennifer Bowes

Parenting Style as a Context for Emotion Socialization.

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to examine parenting style in the domain of emotion socialization through studying the relationships among parenting styles, emotion-related parental practices, and parental goals of Hong Kong–Chinese mothers. Data were collected from 189 Hong Kong–Chinese mothers of 6- to 8-year-old children. Hong Kong–Chinese mothers reported that among authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles, they adopted an authoritative style most often and an authoritarian style least often. They valued both relational and individualistic emotional competence of their children as parental goals but regarded the former as more important than the latter. Structural equation modeling results indicated that parental goals mediated the influences of parenting styles on parental practices. Authoritative mothers who held individualistic emotional competence goals adopted different parental practices (a coaching or an emotion-encouraging approach) from those who held relational emotional competence goals. When mothers adopted authoritarian parenting and endorsed relational emotional competence as a parental goal, they responded to childrens expression of emotions in a dismissing way. Practice or Policy: Parenting styles play an overarching role in emotion socialization, influencing both parental practices and goals. The results imply that school personnel, counselors, or social workers should take into account parenting styles, parental goals, and cultural values of participants when they offer training programs to parents.

Chinese parenting in Hong Kong : links among goals, beliefs and styles

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among parental goals, parental beliefs and parenting styles. Questionnaires were completed during interviews with 189 Hong Kong‐Chinese mothers of children aged six to eight years. Results indicated that these mothers embraced Chinese parental beliefs (guan) and Chinese parental goals of filial piety and harmonious social relationships. In contrast to other studies on Chinese parenting, this study examined Chinese mothers’ adoption of psychological control in addition to authoritarian and authoritative parenting. Participants’ main styles were found to be authoritative and psychologically controlling rather than authoritarian as reported in previous research. Parental goals were found to mediate the effect of parental beliefs on adoption of parenting styles. Mothers who embraced guan and filial piety reported either an authoritarian or a psychologically controlling parenting style, while those who embraced guan and harmonious social relationships adopted an authoritative parenting style.

Adolescents’ ideas about individual and social responsibility in relation to children’s household work: Some international comparisons

Cultural values of individual and social responsibility were investigated through adolescents’ ideas about children’s household work. A total of 4627 adolescents from six countries completed questionnaire items about the age children should begin chores, the value of children’s participation, and the appropriateness of payment. Differences were found between countries for all questions but notably for the question of payment. Adolescents in the USA, Australia, and Sweden were more likely to support a general payment associated with children’s household work, whereas adolescents in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Hungary were more likely to oppose payment. All differences interacted with type of task (self-care and family-care), corresponding to a relative emphasis on individual and social responsibility.

Would You Ask Someone Else to Do This Task? Parents' and Children's Ideas about Household Work Requests.

This article describes 2 studies, both concerned with the extent to which various household tasks are seen as easy or difficult to move from one family member to another. In Study 1, the informants, mothers and fathers, rated the ease of requests to a partner, teenaged son, or teenaged daughter. In Study 2, the informants, children aged 8, 11, and 14 years, commented on the feasibility of requests to a mother, father, sister, or brother. The studies were part of a general concern with the way work is understood, with particular attention given to distinctions drawn among tasks and among family members, and to variations among family members in the ideas heald about work and its possible distribution

Reasoning and negotiation about child responsibility in urban Chinese families: Reports from mothers, fathers and children

The study investigates everyday parental practices involved in the transmission of cultural values and extends current literature on parenting in Chinese families. Children aged 6, 8, and 10 years from 240 Beijing families, and both their parents, were asked about ways in which expectations of child responsibility are transmitted through routine requests, reasoning, and negotiation about household work, an area in which Western parents are known to use such practices. Use of a range of parental requests and reasons was reported. Few child age or gender differences were found for reasons related to child responsibility. Child-initiated negotiation was reported as rare and unacceptable, its use restricted to tagging the relative importance of different spheres of child responsibility.

Searching for Evidence-Based Practice: A Review of the Research on Educational Interventions for Intellectually Gifted Children in the Early Childhood Years.

A search of the literature from the past 30 years reveals that there is a dearth of research surrounding effective interventions for intellectually gifted children in the early childhood years. The findings of 11 empirical studies of educational provisions for young gifted children were located and the methodological rigor of the studies examined. Aspects problematic to research with young gifted children are discussed, including issues relating to sample sizes, definitions of giftedness, difficulties in conducting experimental studies, finding appropriate standardized measures for use with gifted children, and measurement of program outcomes. Suggestions are made for strengthening future research in the field of early childhood gifted education.

Child Care Choices: A Longitudinal Study of Children, Families and Child Care in Partnership with Policy Makers.

Child Care Choices is an example of new early childhood research based on a relationship between policy makers and researchers. It is also an example of large-scale longitudinal team-based research into early childhood in Australia. The ongoing study addresses the professional problem for practitioners and policy makers of the increasing use of multiple care settings and changes to care arrangements in the early years and their possible impacts on child development. The project will follow an initial sample of 693 families with a child aged from birth to three years over a three-year period. An ecological framework is used to include the influences on child development of characteristics of the children and their families, their city or country location, as well as their childcare history and current care arrangements. Development is measured in terms of children’s health, motor development, social and emotional development, language and communication as well as emerging literacy and numeracy. The article discusses the unique features of the project in Australian early childhood research, its history, preliminary findings, and the potential of this kind of large-scale, longitudinal team-based research conducted in partnership with policy makers to contribute to policy as well as to theoretical debate.

First‐time Mothers’ Use of Music and Movement with Their Young Infants: The Impact of a Teaching Program

The study is concerned with how first‐time mothers can be encouraged to use music and movement with their infants. Thirty‐nine first‐time mothers reported their use of music and movement with their infant before and after a 5‐week period during which 17 of the mother‐infant pairs participated in a one‐hour‐a‐week music and movement program. The program involved relaxation methods, kinesics, singing, visual contact and tactile stimulation. Results indicate that the program was successful in extending mothers’ relaxation to music and their use of rhythmical movement with their infants but not their use of song and massage, beyond the levels reported by control group mothers. Mothers in the program reported use of music and movement to stimulate and soothe infants and social benefits of group participation for themselves and their infants.

Using an ecocultural approach to explore young children’s experiences of prior‐to‐school care settings

This paper contributes to the discussion around methodologies effective in gathering the perspectives of young children for the purposes of research. It describes ecocultural theory, a theoretical model that has grown out of anthropology and cross‐cultural psychology, and argues for the benefits of applying an ecocultural approach to interviews with children, guiding qualitative analysis of interview data, and the development of practical strategies built on research findings. The value of this approach to research with young children is demonstrated with examples from a study which examined the prior‐to‐school care experiences of 8 four‐year‐old children.

Mothers' safety intervention strategies with toddlers and their relationship to child characteristics

Injury prevention at home is an important concern for parents of toddlers. This study investigated safety‐related intervention strategies of 40 middle‐class Australian mothers, and their relationship with three child characteristics: gender, temperament and language comprehension. In an interview at home, mothers reported frequency of use of 15 strategies and completed a child temperament questionnaire. Their two‐year‐olds were tested for language comprehension. Principal component analysis revealed three types of strategies: educate, control, and remove risk. Relationships were found between strategy type and two child characteristics: temperament and language comprehension. Control strategies were linked to active, intense children; and educate strategies were linked to persistent children and to children with higher language comprehension. Implications are discussed for safety‐related parenting strategies with toddlers.