Child-Rearing Practices in Chinese and American Cultures Essay example

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Child-Rearing Practices in Chinese and American Cultures
The generally accepted way in which children in a society are raised, constitutes its philosophical and social child rearing practice. Child-rearing research has focused on understanding differences in parent’s beliefs and values, characteristics of cultural socialization, and the implications of such variations. “Chinese parents traditionally stress their authority over their children and expect unquestioning obedience from them” (Chiu 1987). In America, a parent’s main focus is what they should do for their children to help them succeed in life; Chinese parents raise their children to do what is best for their parents and society. Significant differences were found in Chinese,
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What was interesting from her research is she found that many immigrant Chinese parents were straying from their traditions, and becoming more lenient with their authoritarian child-rearing due to acculturation into the American society. The Chinese parents rated highest for “Parental Control” and “Emphasis on Achievement”, while American parents rated highest for “Open Expression of Affection” and “Encouragement of Independence”. Immigrant Chinese parents rated in the middle between Chinese and American parents in all categories, yet had a very similar rating in the category “Parental Control”.

Another study, conducted by Cheah, Leung, and Zhou, dug deeper into the minds of the Immigrant Chinese Mothers, using an in-depth interview study. They wanted to understand how the immigrant Chinese mothers viewed Chinese parenting and American parenting, and if their child rearing had changed since living in America. Many mothers indicated that they became more flexible and less restrictive in their parenting after moving to America. Mothers realized that the use of physical punishment or verbal criticism might generate children’s resistance toward their parents. Instead, these mothers reported using more reasoning and explanation of the consequences of misbehavior with their children when correcting their wrongdoings as they observed U.S. parents doing