Abstract
Training (jiao xun) has been proposed as an indigenous form of Chinese parenting. Does it exist in other populations? If so, how might it be associated with developmental outcomes? We examined the relationships of training to adolescent academic, psychological, and school adjustment in a sample of 214 Chinese American and 125 European American academically gifted students. We found that training also occurs in European American families with academically gifted children. There were other ethnic similarities: Training was not associated with depression or anxiety in either group, and it was a positive predictor of academic efficacy for both groups. One difference emerged: Training was not associated with school-engagement problems for the European American students, but it was positively associated with fewer school-engagement problems for the Chinese American students. The findings suggest that training has positive implications for academic and school adjustment among academically gifted Chinese American adolescents and for academic adjustment only among their European American peers.
Highlights
Jiao xun, which literally translates as training and has been proposed as an indigenous form of Chinese parenting, means that parents use continuous control to educate children to achieve societal and parental expectations, such as educational success and proper conduct [1]
Considering that training is an indigenous form of Chinese parenting and that ethnic Chinese (e.g., Chinese American) children may be more likely to appreciate training’s positive connotations[1], we hypothesize that 1) training levels will be higher for Chinese American adolescents than for European American adolescents, and 2) the positive associations of training with academic efficacy, positive psychological adjustment, and fewer school-engagement problems will be stronger for Chinese American adolescents than for European American adolescents
Our findings suggest that training parenting is a common approach used by both European and Chinese American parents of academically gifted students
Summary
Jiao xun, which literally translates as training and has been proposed as an indigenous form of Chinese parenting, means that parents use continuous control to educate children to achieve societal and parental expectations, such as educational success and proper conduct [1]. In addition to the controlling component, training parenting conveys parental nurturance and warmth through parents’ instrumental support, devotion, and guidance for children’s education and behavior [1]. In 2011, Amy Chua [2] published her highly contested book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, detailing how she exercised such training approach in parenting her academically gifted daughters. She forbade them to attend sleepovers or camps and continuously and devotedly provided them with study guidance, in order to train them to be highly successful in their educational endeavors. While there is some emerging scholarly work on this Chinese parenting style (e.g., [3]), little empirical research has investigated whether aspects of this approach occur among parents from other ethnic backgrounds—including the parents of academically gifted students—and if so, how these might be associated with children’s developmental outcomes
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