Elaine Hulei

Date of Award

9-15-2003

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

First Advisor

Sue C Jacobs

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the cultural effect on parenting practices based on Ogbu's (1981) cultural ecological model. In a given society, parenting beliefs are a reflection of that society's cultural values and traditions. For example, verbosity, a parenting style, is considered a parenting mistake in Western culture; however, it may not be a-mistake in Chinese culture. Thirty-one immigrant Chinese and 30 Caucasian Americans mothers were recruited for this study. Three questionnaires were employed to measure parenting styles, child behaviors associated with parenting styles and the possible relationship between acculturation level and Chinese immigrant parenting. These questionnaires were the Parenting Scale by Arnold, O'Leary, Wolff and Acker (1993), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) by Achenbach (1991), and Suinn and Lew's (1987) Asian American Acculturation Scale. Immigrant Chinese mothers in this study had a higher verbosity level than Caucasian American mothers. However, such “dysfunctional” parenting style did not predict child internalized or externalized behavioral problems among Chinese children. Although Caucasian American mothers received lower scores on verbosity, there were no differences between the two groups in child outcomes as measured by the CBCL. The acculturation level of immigrant Chinese mothers was not predictive of verbosity in parenting style. Overall, the results of this study suggest that dysfunctional parenting style can be defined only relative to cultural context.

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