The parenting of immigrant Chinese and European American mothers: Relations between parenting styles, socialization goals, and parental practices

Clarification of the cultural meaning of parenting for immigrant Chinese wa s determined, focusing on parenting style as well as socialization goals an d practices. Although the cultural relevance of an alternative parenting st yle, training, has been demonstrated for Chinese parents, the broader-level cultural values or socialization goals and parental practices that may be related to training have not been examined. Immigrant Chinese (n = 95) and European American (n = 52) mothers of children in the first through third g rades completed measures of Baumrind's parenting styles and Chao's training items, in addition to measures of socialization goals and practices (paren tal involvement in school). This study found that Chinese mothers endorsed the training, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles, while also en dorsing socialization goals for filial piety and structural parental involv ement practices in comparison with European American mothers. However, addi tional analyses for examining ethnic group differences in the associations between training and the other parenting scales, these associations were si milar for immigrant Chinese and European American mothers.