European American Parents Research Articles

An initial evaluation of the role of emotion and impulsivity in explaining racial/ethnic differences in the use of corporal punishment.

The authors sought to provide an initial evaluation of the hypothesis that corporal punishment is less strongly associated with parental emotion and impulsivity among African American ("Black") in contrast to European American ("White") parents. White-Latino and Black-Latino differences in corporal punishment, emotion, and impulsivity were explored, given the lack of existing theory predicting group differences. Couples with 3- to 7-year-old children were recruited via random digit dialing, and the parents completed questionnaires and an analog parent-child conflict task in the laboratory. Group differences were tested pooling mothers and fathers via dyadic data analyses. Black parents (N = 57) had more positive attitudes toward and used more corporal punishment than White parents (N = 730). Latino American parents' (N = 78) views and use of corporal punishment were similar to those of White parents. By and large, associations of corporal punishment with parents' impulsivity and emotion did not significantly vary by race/ethnicity. The present findings, although preliminary, do not support the emotion-impulsivity hypothesis of racial differences in the use of corporal punishment suggested by K. Deater-Deckard, K. A. Dodge, J. E. Bates, and G. S. Pettit (1996).

Ethnicity differences in child and parental outcomes following involvement the PACE program

This study investigated ethnic differences in the extent to which engagement (i.e., attendance and quality of participation) in the PACE (Parenting our Children to Excellence) program predicted positive child and parent outcomes. PACE is an 8-week preventive intervention aimed at parents of preschool children. The study investigated the relation of engagement to outcomes in an ethnically diverse sample of 298 African American and 280 European American parents. Overall results demonstrated that engagement in PACE significantly improved child and parent outcomes for both African American and European American participants. Some improvements were evident at post-assessment already and were maintained or became stronger at a one-year follow-up assessment, whereas others only became evident at follow-up. Specifically, results revealed that attendance in PACE significantly improved child coping competence and parenting stress for both the African American and European American samples. PACE attendance also significantly improved child behavior problems, parental satisfaction and parental efficacy for the European American sample. Findings indicate that PACE is a promising intervention for parents of African American and Caucasian preschoolers; although further research and program refinement is necessary in order to understand the mechanisms with the PACE intervention that seem to vary for African American compared to Caucasian families.

What makes a high-quality preschool? Similarities and differences between Chinese immigrant and European American parents’ views

Abstract Even though scholars have attempted to identify features determining high-quality preschools, little is known about parents’ views about high-quality preschools. Particularly important is the understanding of immigrant parents’ views about high-quality preschools in relation to their cultural and socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds. The present study examined 225 parents’ beliefs about features in a high-quality preschool among Chinese immigrant parents, both low-SES and middle class, and middle-class European American parents with 4-year-olds. Content analysis of open-ended interviews with parents yielded 20 codes representing components in a high-quality preschool. All interviews were coded and quantitatively analyzed. Regardless of culture or SES, parents indexed the quality of teachers, curricula, and environment as critical components to be a high-quality preschool. However, Chinese immigrant parents’ descriptions were focused on the quality of teachers compared to European American parents who stressed individual attention and response to the needs of parents and children. We found a larger difference between low-SES Chinese immigrant parents and European American parents. Our findings suggest that parents place varying priorities and values on features in a high-quality preschool depending on their cultural and SES backgrounds.

Parent involvement at school entry: A national examination of group differences and achievement

This research examined the scope of parental involvement at school entry and sought to determine what, if any, differences existed between ethnic groups. In addition, the researcher attempted to determine if parental involvement was related to academic achievement at school entry. Participants were the African American and European American parents and children who participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K; US Department of Education, 2005). Results from this project suggest that ethnic differences in parental involvement are present at school entry. In particular, European American parents were more like to be involved in home-based parental involvement activities such as reading to their children while African American parents were more likely to be involved in school related activities such as volunteering at school. In addition, the analysis suggests that parent involvement was only slightly related to reading achievement at school entry. The study is discussed in terms of its implications for future research towards narrowing the achievement gap.

Ethnic Differences in Parents' Attitudes toward Girls' Use of Aggression

Few studies have attempted to explain ethnic differences in female aggression. The degree to which ethnic differences exist in the influence of parents' approval of aggression on their preadolescent daughters' use of physical, verbal, and relational aggression was explored in a sample of 97 parent-child dyads. Results indicate that European American parents were more disapproving of their daughters' aggressive behavior than were African American parents. Parents' attitude toward aggression was predictive of European American girls' use of physical and verbal aggression and African American girls' use of relational aggression. Implications for aggression prevention and intervention for girls are discussed.

Parental Expectations and Children's Academic Performance in Sociocultural Context

In this paper, we review research on parental expectations and their effects on student achievement within and across diverse racial and ethnic groups. Our review suggests that the level of parental expectations varies by racial/ethnic group, and that students' previous academic performance is a less influential determinant of parental expectations among racial/ethnic minority parents than among European American parents. To explain this pattern, we identify three processes associated with race/ethnicity that moderate the relation between students' previous performance and parental expectations. Our review also indicates that the relation of parental expectations to concurrent or future student achievement outcomes is weaker for racial/ethnic minority families than for European American families. We describe four mediating processes by which high parental expectations may influence children's academic trajectories and show how these processes are associated with racial/ethnic status. The article concludes with a discussion of educational implications as well as suggestions for future research.

Developmental patterns in decision-making autonomy across middle childhood and adolescence: European American parents' perspectives.

Longitudinal patterns in parents' reports of youth decision-making autonomy from ages 9 to 20 were examined in a study of 201 European American families with 2 offspring. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that decision-making autonomy increased gradually across middle childhood and adolescence before rising sharply in late adolescence. Social domain theory was supported by analyses of 8 decision types spanning prudential, conventional, personal, and multifaceted domains. Decision making was higher for girls, youth whom parents perceived as easier to supervise, and youth with better educated parents. Firstborns and secondborns had different age-related trajectories of decision-making autonomy. Findings shed light on the developmental trajectories and family processes associated with adolescents' fundamental task of gaining autonomy.

Effects of Parent Instruction on the Symbolic Communication of Children Using Augmentative and Alternative Communication During Storybook Reading

This study investigated the effects of a communication partner instruction strategy for parents of children using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) on the communicative turn taking of their children. Instruction was provided within storybook-reading contexts. Two single-subject multiple-probe-across-participants designs were used to evaluate the effects of parent instruction on (a) 3 European American parents and (b) 3 African American parents. Changes in turn-taking rates and the expression of different semantic concepts in children using AAC were assessed in storybook-reading activities. All 6 parents learned to implement the communication partner interaction strategy accurately. All 6 children who used AAC increased their communicative turn taking and their language use as reflected by different semantic concepts expressed. Results provide evidence that the communication partner instruction program applied within storybook-reading contexts holds significant promise in improving parent-child interaction patterns and facilitating communicative expression and turn taking in children who use AAC.

Stability, Continuity, and Similarity of Parenting Stress in European American Mothers and Fathers Across Their Child's Transition to Adolescence

SYNOPSIS Objective . Experiencing some degree of parenting stress is virtually unavoidable, particularly as children enter early adolescence and assert their independence. In this study, the authors examined how parenting stress attributed to the parent, the child, or the dyad changed in mean level and relative standing across their child's transition to adolescence. The authors also compared mothers and fathers from the same families in terms of parenting stress and explored how one parent's stress affected the other parent's stress. Design . Participants included 222 European American parents (111 mothers and 111 fathers), assessed when their children were 10 and 14 years old. Results . Parenting stress was highly stable from 10 to 14 years. Total parenting stress increased across time, and was attributable to stress due to increased parent–child dysfunctional interaction, not parental distress or stress due to child behavior. Mothers and fathers agreed moderately in their relative standing and in the average levels of parenting stress in the 3 different domains of parenting stress at each time point. Mothers' and fathers' stress across domains were sometimes related. Conclusions . Mothers' and fathers' increased parenting stress across their child's transition to adolescence seems to derive from parent–child interaction rather than qualities of the parent or the child per se. Finding ways to maintain parent–child communication and closeness may protect parents and families from increased stress during this vulnerable time.

Parenting by lying

The present set of studies identifies the phenomenon of ‘parenting by lying’, in which parents lie to their children as a means of influencing their emotional states and behaviour. In Study 1, undergraduates (n = 127) reported that their parents had lied to them while maintaining a concurrent emphasis on the importance of honesty. In Study 2 (n = 127), parents reported lying to their children and considered doing so to be acceptable under some circumstances, even though they also reported teaching their children that lying is unacceptable. As compared to European American parents, Asian American parents tended to hold a more favourable view of lying to children for the purpose of promoting behavioural compliance.

Parental involvement in children's schooling: Different meanings in different cultures

Abstract Three types of parent involvement—communicating, volunteering at school, and learning at home—were explored in two cultures within the United States. Immigrant Chinese parents and European American parents of young children reflect their different traditions in the ways they involve themselves in their child's academic life. European American parents volunteered more in schools, while Chinese American parents focused more on systematic teaching of their children at home. Chinese American parents were more critical of typical primary school report cards without ABC grades. Parents’ home teaching methods showed stability over time, demonstrating that parents who used formal, structured methods at Time 1 continued to do two and four years later.

Differences between European Americans and African Americans in the Association between Child Obesity and Disrupted Parenting

INTRODUCTIONThe rate of obesity among children has more than doubled the past 30 years (Berkowitz and Stunkard 2002) increasing concern about its physical and emotional health consequences (Braet, Mervielde, and Vandereycken 1997; DeJong and Kleck 1986). This increase has been especially marked among African- American children; rates of overweight and obesity among African American girls, for example, are nearly twice those of European American girls (Baskin, Ard, Franklin, and Allison 2005). Awareness of these trends has contributed to a growing interest in the social psychological causes and consequences of childhood obesity. One of the most active areas of research has emphasized the association between childhood obesity and dysfunctional family relationships. While this line of research has produced a number of important results (Favaro and Santonastaso 1995; Fulkerson, McGuire, Neumark-Sztainer, Story, French, and Perry 2002; Mendelson, White, and Schliecker 1995; Renman, Engstrom, Silfverdal, and Aman 1 999; Steinberg and Phares 200 1 ), we argue that it has also been limited in ways that reflect the medical and psychiatric perspectives long dominant in this field. In particular, there tends to be an assumption about causal direction-that poor parenting tends to make children overweight.In this paper, we draw from the family stress model developed by Conger and colleagues (Conger and Conger 2002) to propose an alternative perspective for understanding this relationship. According to this model, hardship and negative events create family stress. The emotional distress that results disrupts parenting which then leads to child and adolescent maladjustment. The model indicates that the stressor produces emotions and behaviors in parents that create problematic outcomes for children because they disrupt the parents' ability to engage in high quality parenting. Support for this model has been demonstrated in other studies using the same two samples utilized in the present study.We argue that, among European American parents, child overweight and obesity disrupts the quality of parenting children receive because the stigma associated with obesity acts as a stressor, making effective parenting more difficult. Theory and research on determinants of parenting have established that a child's characteristics do impact the parenting practices of mothers and fathers (Belsky 1984; Vondra and Belsky 1989). To date, this work has largely been limited to consideration of the effects of a child's temperament and has shown that parents are often less involved when their children have difficult temperaments (Lytton 1990; Sampson and Laub 1993; Simons, Johnson, Conger, and Elder 1998). Drawing from both Conger's (Conger, Wallace, Sun, Simons, McLoyd, and Brody 2002; Conger and Conger 2002) family stress model and research on the impact of stigma as a parental stressor, we argue that obesity is another child characteristic that is likely to have a disruptive effect on quality of involvement for some parents.STRESS AND THE STIGMA OF CHILDHOOD OBESITYParenting an overweight child may be stressful for a number of reasons. Fears about obesity's health consequences may be a significant stressor. Parents may feel guilty or frustrated by their inability to influence their child's weight trajectory. This may, in tum, exacerbate parents' worries about their children's physical and emotional well-being. Parents may also be embarrassed about having an obese child. Such feelings may have been exacerbated by negative comments from family members, school officials, or health care providers. All of these experiences may result in the feeling of stigma: a discrediting characteristic that influences both how people perceive themselves and how they are perceived and treated by others (Goffman 1963). In particular, stigma tends to evoke assessments of incompetence and lack of moral trustworthiness and is accompanied by status loss, negative treatment, and strained interactions for both the stigmatized person and his or her intimate associates (Jones, Farina, Hastorf, Markus, Miller, and Scott 1 984; Link and Phelan 200 1 ); we argue that such assessments may be particularly salient sources of stress for parents of overweight children. …

Family Cohesion in the Lives of Mexican American and European American Parents

This study investigated similarities and differences in relations between stress and parenting behaviors for 509 Mexican American and European American fathers and mothers in Southern California. Our model posited that family cohesion mediates the relation between stressors and parenting behavior, and we found that family cohesion strongly mediated most of the relations between stress and parenting behaviors. Important ethnic and gender differences were evident. In contrast with other groups, Mexican American fathers reported higher levels of family cohesion when faced with economic pressures. Implications for future research on stress and parenting are discussed.

Examining cultural socialization within African American and European American households.

This preliminary study explored the cultural socialization processes of 227 African American and European American parents of elementary schoolchildren. The Cultural Value Socialization Scales (K. M. Tyler, A. W. Boykin, C. M. Boelter, & M. L. Dillihunt, 2005) were used to garner parents' reports of their cultural value socialization activities at home. The scales contained written vignettes depicting persons involved in activity that reflected a specific cultural value. Ethnocultural values examined were communalism, verve, movement, and affect, and mainstream cultural values included individualism, competition, bureaucracy, and materialism. Regression analyses reveal that being an African American parent was predictive of competition and materialism scores. Race was not a significant predictor of the remaining cultural value socialization scores. Limitations to the study are discussed.

Ethnic Differences in Attributions and Treatment Expectancies for Adolescent Depression

Studies suggest that ethnicity and socioeconomic factors may relate to differences in treatment expectancies and the attributions made for emotional or behavioral problems. We examined ethnic differences in (1) parents' attributions about the causes of adolescent behavioral and emotional problems and (2) treatment expectancies among 236 adolescent participants who enrolled in a 36–week randomized controlled trial for depression. Controlling for education and income, European American parents were more likely to endorse beliefs reflecting physical causes of depression than African American parents. There were no ethnic differences for beliefs reflecting external, familial, or community factors. Ethnic differences were observed in the treatment expectancies reported by parents, but not adolescents, with African American parents more likely than European Americans and Other minorities to endorse positive expectations for CBT. These findings may have implications for understanding discrepancies in mental health service use.

Ethnic Differences in Attributions and Treatment Expectancies for Adolescent Depression.

Studies suggest that ethnicity and socioeconomic factors may relate to differences in treatment expectancies and the attributions made for emotional or behavioral problems. We examined ethnic differences in (1) parents' attributions about the causes of adolescent behavioral and emotional problems and (2) treatment expectancies among 236 adolescent participants who enrolled in a 36-week randomized controlled trial for depression. Controlling for education and income, European American parents were more likely to endorse beliefs reflecting physical causes of depression than African American parents. There were no ethnic differences for beliefs reflecting external, familial, or community factors. Ethnic differences were observed in the treatment expectancies reported by parents, but not adolescents, with African American parents more likely than European Americans and Other minorities to endorse positive expectations for CBT. These findings may have implications for understanding discrepancies in mental health service use.

Differences between European Americans and African Americans in the Association between Child Obesity and Disrupted Parenting

Given the dominant culture’s emphasis upon being thin in the United States, we investigated the hypothesis that obesity is a childhood characteristic that has a disruptive effect upon the parenting of European American parents. Past research suggests, however, that the African American community is less concerned about issues of being overweight, and therefore child obesity was expected to have less impact upon the parenting practices of African American mothers and fathers. Therefore, we did not expect to find a relationship between quality of parenting and child’s obesity for African American parents. These hypotheses were tested using two samples: the first was comprised of approximately 847 European American families, and second consisted of 867African American families. The findings supported the hypotheses. Our analyses showed the predicted negative association between child’s weight and the parenting of European American mothers and fathers whereas there was no such relationship for African Americans parents. These results were largely consistent across four dimensions of parenting (warmth, monitoring, inductive reasoning, and problem solving), and held for both daughters and sons.

Asian American Parents' Attributions of Children With Down Syndrome: Connections With Child Characteristics and Culture

This study explores cultural differences between European American (n = 26) and Asian American (n = 17) parents' attributional ratings of children with Down syndrome. Links were examined among parents' attributions, reactions, and behaviors regarding their child's jigsaw-puzzle performance. Although the children's puzzle abilities did not differ, compared with European American parents, Asian American parents judged their child as less successful and had lower expectations for future success. Asian American parents also attributed the child's performance to lower ability and lower effort. Affectively, they indicated less sympathy and more anger and blame toward the child. Despite striking ethnic differences, parents in both groups judged their older children as more successful and reported offering them less encouragement and help. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Culturally Diverse Parents' Experiences in Their Children's Transition

Despite the benefits of parental involvement in a student's transition planning process, the reality is that parents of students with disabilities are often not adequately involved. This problem is particularly salient with regard to culturally diverse parents. The purpose of this study was to gather in-depth information about parents' experiences in the transition planning process. Nineteen African American, Asian American, European American, and Hispanic parents of 19 high school students with disabilities were interviewed by telephone regarding their knowledge and involvement in their children's transition planning process. Emergent themes included a lack of knowledge regarding transition planning, the importance of attending Individualized Education Program and transition meetings, the importance of employment, the importance of home support, and parental emotions as barriers.

Home(land) Décor: China Adoptive Parents’ Consumption of Chinese Cultural Objects for Display in their Homes

American parents of children adopted from China frequently consume Chinese cultural objects for display in their homes. While parents defend this consumption for display as an effort to validate their children’s ethno-cultural origins, they also reveal how it signifies and solidifies their own identifications with Chinese culture. As part of a larger research project examining China adoptive parents’ evolving “Chinese” identities, this paper asks: Which parents “become ‘Chinese’” through the consumption and display of Chinese cultural objects, and why? To answer this question, I conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 91 Americans in the China adoption process and ethnographic fieldwork at two different field-sites: Families with Children from China (FCC) Chinese cultural celebrations and Chinese culture camps organized by/for China adoptive families. Focusing on the emergent and personal meanings that parents give to Chinese cultural objects, I demonstrate how these meanings both structure parents’ consumption and yield a display differential. In doing so, I reveal that white European-American parents and mothers are most likely to engage in this consumption and display, thereby amending the three types of ethno-cultural identity consumption represented in the literature. Specifically, I expose the central role of race in ethno-cultural identity consumption; demonstrate that the collective category of reference for ethno-cultural identity consumption is not always an ethnic category (in this case, such consumption refers to a gendered category); and illustrate the ways in which global ethno-cultural identity consumption both appeals to and satisfies distinctly local constructs.