Joey Fung

Factors Associated with Parent–Child (Dis)agreement on Child Behavior and Parenting Problems in Chinese Immigrant Families

We examined familial and cultural factors predicting parent–child (dis)agreement on child behavior and parenting problems. Immigrant Chinese parents (89.7% mothers; M age = 44.24 years) and their children (62 boys; 57.9%) between the ages of 9 and 17 years (M = 11.9 years, SD = 2.9) completed measures of parent punitive behavior and child problems. Concordance in item profiles and discrepancies in overall problem levels were assessed. Overall, immigrant parents reported fewer child and parenting problems than did their children. Relationship closeness predicted less disagreement in ratings of child internalizing symptoms and punitive parenting. Parental acculturative stress and parent–child acculturation dissonance predicted more disagreement regarding internalizing problems. The findings highlight potential under-identification of internalizing problems among immigrant Chinese families that may be driven by acculturation processes.

Punitive Discipline and Child Behavior Problems in Chinese-American Immigrant Families: The Moderating Effects of Indigenous Child-Rearing Ideologies.

In a sample of 107 Chinese immigrant families we examined whether cultural child-rearing beliefs moderated the association between parents’ use of punitive discipline and children’s behavioral adjustment. Immigrant parents and their children aged 7 to 17 years completed measures of parental discipline and child behavior problems. Parents also reported on indigenous Chinese child-rearing ideologies regarding shaming and training as strategies for raising competent and moral children. Results of hierarchical regression models conducted with parent-reported data indicated that the negative effects of punitive discipline on child behavior problems were not apparent when parents adhered to training and shaming ideologies. However, the buffering effects of training ideologies were more robust and consistent than shaming. The findings provide some evidence that the discipline—behavior problem link may be moderated by cultural context of caregiver psychology which shapes the meaning and implications of parental behavior.

Tough Love or Hostile Domination? Psychological Control and Relational Induction in Cultural Context

The authors examined 2 forms of parental psychological control and how they related to child behavior problems in 2 cultural groups. A sample of 165 Hong Kong (HK) Chinese and 96 European American (EA) parents completed measures of parental control strategies, parental rejection, and child behavior problems. The use of hostile psychological control (criticism, interference, invalidation) was more strongly associated with the use of relational induction (guilt induction, shaming, reciprocity, social comparison) among EAs compared with HK parents. Psychological control was related to parental rejection across both groups, but it was only independently associated with child behavior problems for EA families. Relational induction, on the other hand, was not associated with child behavior problems in either group but was more strongly associated with parental rejection among EAs compared with HK parents. The findings suggest that there are distinguishable forms of psychological control that may have distinctive implications for parent-child relations and child behavioral adjustment depending on the cultural context.

Group parent training with immigrant chinese families: enhancing engagement and augmenting skills training

Parent training (PT) is an evidence-based treatment for reducing and preventing child conduct problems and abusive parenting. However, questions have been raised about the dissemination of PT to culturally diverse families who hold different views on childrearing. Group PT was applied in two Chinese immigrant families illustrating strategies for addressing potential cultural barriers. The Incredible Years program builds in therapeutic process elements to address cultural concerns to enhance engagement. In addition, augmenting basic PT with additional skills training can help parents manage stressors common in immigrant families to facilitate uptake of new parenting skills. This implementation experience suggested that high-risk immigrant Chinese parents can be effectively engaged in group PT, even when they are not in treatment voluntarily.

Psychology of Asian American Children: Contributions of Cultural Heritage and the Minority Experience

This chapter presents information on mental health issues in Asian American children, focusing on cultural orientation and minority-related experiences as posing challenges to the maintenance of mental health, as well as providing strengths which contribute to resilience in this group. We then recommend some ways through which we may draw upon the strengths of Asian American youth to promote resiliency and overcome vulnerabilities in adjustment.

Children’s emotional expressivity and teacher perceptions of social competence A cross-cultural comparison

Previous research suggests that adult perceptions of children’s social competence may vary depending on the socialization goals in a given cultural context. There is also ample evidence of cultural differences in values concerning emotional display, with East Asian collectivistic contexts favoring restraint and Western individualistic contexts favoring open expression of internal states. The present study examined an individualistic versus collectivistic comparison in the links between children’s emotional expressivity and teacher evaluations of their social competence. A sample of 127 Korean, Asian American (AA) and European American (EA) preschoolers participated in emotion eliciting tasks and were rated by their teachers on three dimensions of social competence (peer acceptance, prosocial behavior, and antisocial behavior). Moderation analyses revealed that for Korean children, sadness and happiness expressivity were associated with higher antisocial behavior scores, but these associations were reversed or not significant for EAs. For AA children, anger display was associated with lower ratings of peer acceptance and prosocial behavior, but this link did not hold for their EA counterparts. Overall, there was some support for the hypotheses that expressivity was related to lower teacher perceptions of child social competence for a collectivistic group (AA and Korean) but not for an individualistic group (EA). Thus, these findings indicate cultural group differences in teacher perceptions and values of children’s emotion expressivity.