Implications of Chinese and American mothers’ goals for children’s emotional distress: Investigation of a cultural transmission model

This research examined a cultural transmission model in which differences in Chinese and American parents’ socialization goals foster differences in children’s emotional distress via parents’ responses to children’s performance. 397 Chinese and American mothers and their children (mean age = 13.19 years) participated in a 2-wave study spanning a year. Mothers reported on their self-improvement (i.e., children striving to improve) and self-worth (i.e., children feeling worthy) goals, as well as their responses to children’s performance. Children reported on their emotional distress (e.g., anxiety and depression). Chinese (vs. American) mothers’ greater endorsement of self-improvement goals predicted their more frequent use of failure-focused responses (e.g., highlighting children’s mistakes), which accounted for Chinese (vs. American) children’s heightened emotional distress over early adolescence.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2019

Author dc:creator

• Ng, Janice

Contributors dc:contributor

• Pomerantz, Eva

• emotional distress
• parenting
• responses to performance
• China
• culture

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2018 Janice Ng

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/102967

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/102967