Parenting Style and Traditional Cultural Values

In your opinion, what is the relationship between adherence to traditional cultural values and parenting style?

The results of Xu and colleagues’ (2005) study showed among 97 Mainland Chinese mothers stronger adherence to traditional cultural values, such as Confucian beliefs about socialization goals and societal virtues were associated with both authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles, and the findings supported the notion that in traditional Chinese mothers, these two parenting styles are not mutually exclusive of each other, unlike in Western parents. In particular, adherence to collectivism, conformity to norms, emotional self-control and humility were significantly associated with an authoritarian parenting style. Adherence to collectivism and conformity to norms were also associated with the authoritative parenting style. Xu et al. (2005) suggested that Chinese mothers who adhere stronger to these traditional values might use authoritarian parenting style to training their children to be righteousness, trustworthy much according to the traditional moral code in Confucianism , which might seemed too dominating and insensitive to children from a perspective that does not value collectivism and Confucian values. In my opinion, the authoritarian parenting style, in the social context dominated by adherence to Confucianism, is taken by the parents at least, as their way of expressing affection, care, and interest in their children, and to express their sensitivity and provide stable secure interaction with their children.

I consider traditional cultural values as heritage and context in which parents learned what is expected of them when they were a child, have a personal experience of how effective and the impact on their lives and growing up, and then provide the model for them to relate with their children when they become parents. The virtues and behaviors stressed by the cultural values would usually be adopted by the parents in the way they train up their kids, the goal of their discipline. And from this particular goal, parents can still adopt the appropriate parenting style. For example, in Chinese culture, knowledge and wisdom is highly stressed, and parents implemented this cultural value in the educational concern for their children, and a focus of their parenting. However, that choice of style is by no means free from the influence of social context, and personal experience of the cultural heritage. For most parents that have been brought up from a family that emphasis filial piety and hence parental authority, they are very likely to use an authoritative parenting style to foster the educational development of their children.