European American and Mainland Chinese Mothers' Socialization Beliefs Regarding Preschoolers' Social Skills

Abstract

Objective. The purpose of this study was to examine the socialization beliefs (goals, attributions, strategies) of European American and Mainland Chinese mothers regarding preschoolers' social skills (sharing, controlling negative emotions, and helping others) within a cultural framework. Design. Participants were 103 European American mothers from Washington, DC, and 100 Mainland Chinese mothers from Beijing and Baoding cities, China. Mothers' cognitions regarding the socialization of competent skills were assessed. The reasons that mothers provided for the importance of each skill, their causal attributions for the acquisition of those skills, and the socialization strategies that would be most effective were targeted. Results. Findings for the European American mothers were generally consistent with previous research on U.S. mothers' socialization beliefs, whereas the Mainland Chinese mothers' beliefs were related to traditional Chinese ideologies and values in meaningful ways. The Chinese mothers provided more social conventional reasons for the importance of children's skills, made more external causal attributions, and endorsed higher proportions of training and education strategies than the European American mothers. Conclusions. The study highlights the significance of cultural ideologies regarding children and the family in the study of maternal beliefs regarding child socialization.