Open AccessImplications of Chinese and American mothers’ goals for children’s emotional distress.
Author(s) -
Jkf Ng,
Yu Xiong,
Yi Qu,
Cecilia Y. Cheung,
Florrie FeiYin Ng,
Meifang Wang,
Eva M. Pomerantz
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.318
H-Index - 213
eISSN - 1939-0599
pISSN - 0012-1649
DOI - 10.1037/dev0000834
Subject(s) - psycinfo , psychology , feeling , socialization , distress , anxiety , developmental psychology , chinese americans , emotional distress , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , ethnic group , social psychology , medline , psychiatry , sociology , political science , anthropology , law , economics , macroeconomics
This research examined a cultural socialization model in which differences in Chinese and American parents' goals for children foster differences in children's emotional distress via parents' responses to children's performance. Chinese and American mothers and their children (N = 397; M 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 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-oriented responses (e.g., highlighting children's mistakes), which accounted for Chinese (vs. American) children's heightened emotional distress over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).