Tiger Mother Research Articles

What Is Supportive Parenting? Perspectives From Chinese Immigrant Caregivers With Low-Income Living in the Greater Boston Area

Chinese immigrant families are the fastest growing immigrant population in the United States. Yet, research on Chinese immigrant parenting is limited, mostly focusing on stereotypes such as the model minority myth and tiger parenting. Little is known about how Chinese immigrant caregivers (i.e., parents and grandparents), especially those with low socioeconomic status (SES), define and engage in supportive parenting. Drawing upon Harkness and Super’s parental ethnotheories and Darling and Steinberg’s integrative parenting model, this phenomenological qualitative study investigated supportive parenting among Chinese immigrant caregivers with low SES. Twenty-four Chinese immigrant caregivers with low SES and children between the ages of 2 to 12 from the Greater Boston area participated in focus groups. The focus groups aimed to identify parenting goals, values, and practices influenced by different cultural contexts. Our findings revealed a conceptualization of supportive parenting which included being highly involved and wanting to give guidance and instruction while respecting children’s autonomy and granting them freedom to explore. The findings have implications for researchers, parenting programs, and family service providers serving Chinese immigrant caregivers.

Effects of Helicopter Parenting, Tiger Parenting and Inhibitory Control on the Development of Children's Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms.

Helicopter parenting and tiger parenting may increase the risks of anxiety and depression in children. However, it is unclear how these parenting styles affect the developmental outcomes and trajectories of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and how children's internal inhibitory control (IC) moderates such effects. The present study aimed to examine this issue. A sample of 172 typically developing children (77 girls; Mage = 7.14, SDage = 0.33) and their parents participated in the study. Parents reported children's anxiety and depressive symptoms using the Child Behavior Checklist each year from the first measurement (T1) to the third measurement (T3) and reported their helicopter parenting and tiger parenting at T1. Children completed the Go/No-go task at T1 to measure their IC. Higher T1 helicopter parenting impeded the declines in anxiety and depression over time, and higher T1 tiger parenting predicted more anxiety and depressive symptoms at T3. However, such effects were only observed in children with low IC, and higher IC buffered the adverse impacts of both helicopter parenting and tiger parenting on children's anxiety and depressive symptoms. These findings revealed that helicopter parenting and tiger parenting had negative impacts on the developmental trajectories and outcomes of anxiety and depression in children and suggest that IC plays an important role in alleviating the risks of anxiety and depression among children in adverse environments.

Tiger Parenting and its Influence on American High School Students

This paper explores the impact of Tiger Parenting on the academic performance and mental health of high school students. First, we will define what Tiger Parenting is and how it fits into the conventional parenting style categories. Then, the research findings related to the development of the Tiger Parenting style will be discussed. The results were unexpected. Contrary to what the West portrays, Tiger Parenting is actually not an authoritarian parenting style. Moreover, it does not work with any family in non-Asian cultures due to cultural reasons.

Tiger Parenting Beyond Cultural Essentialism: Discourses of Class, Culture, and Competition in Hong Kong

Purpose This study explores a nuanced understanding of tiger parenting by moving beyond cultural essentialist perspectives and an East (Chinese)-versus-West binary framework. Design/Approach/Methods The study draws on data from 80 parents in Hong Kong SAR, an example of a culturally-hybrid East Asian metropolis. We applied maximum variation sampling to recruit participants with diverse school choices encompassing different education levels, occupations, social classes, and ethnicities. We used semi-structured interviews to investigate parental beliefs, practices, and understandings of tiger parenting. Findings The findings suggest that tiger parenting is a cross-class and cross-culture phenomenon that would be more fruitfully analyzed by considering parental mindsets, educational structures, peer pressure, generational influences, cultural roots, class preferences, and global aspirations. We posit that tiger parenting and similar parenting practices are increasingly necessitated by fiercely competitive education systems, and becoming globalized across ethnic groups and social class spectrums. Originality/Value This study contributes to the discussion on tiger parenting by highlighting previously understudied factors underpinning the concept. We argue that our analytical approach avoids the previous narrow and cultural essentialist understanding of tiger parenting, and advances the theoretical cogency of the concept.

Interpretation of the Image of Tiger Mother under the Satire Model: A Case Study of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

The book Battle Hymn of the Tiger mother caught fire overnight across the United States, and has brought the term “tiger mother” to the forefront of everyone’s attention. Despite the fact that author Amy Chua’s children are successful and splendid, the alternative way of education depicted in her book, which not only restricts the freedom of her children but also gives them threats and suppression, has caused controversy. With the help of Virginia Satir ’s family therapy theory, this article makes elaboration on Chua’s behavior and reveals that Chua communicates with her daughters in states of low self-esteem. In their communication process, Chua always adopts incongruent communication and plays the role of the blamer and the super-reasonable. And after profiling Chua according to the iceberg theory in the Satir model, it is found that she deliberately avoids emotional pain, stubbornly insists on what she thinks is right, and feels powerless about expectations falling short, and those are the deep causes of Chua’s behavior. A comprehensive interpretation of the central representative of Tiger parenting, Amy Chua, not only can reflect on the shortcomings of tiger parenting, but also can bring new enlightenment and thoughts about family education and help advance toward better family education.

TIGER PARENTING’S POWER DOMINANCE IN “TWO KINDS” SHORT STORY: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

This study aims to examine the short story entitled “Two Kinds”. The method used in this study is descriptive qualitative. In gathering the data, the writers applied close reading to determine the sentences which show the social wrong. In analyzing the data, the writers applied transitivity as the tool to analyze the sentences. After analyzing the data, the writers interpreted and related the sentences with social theories, which are tiger parenting and second generation Asian American. The results of this study show that the main character’s mother applied abusive methods as discussed in the tiger parenting explanation. The transitivity is used to prove that the parent, specifically the mother in the story, applies tiger parenting’s abusive system. The abusive system of the mother is realized through physical actions, mental affection, and verbal utterances to her daughter. The short story also contains the second generation of Asian American phenomena. As the second generation of Asian American, the main character rebels against the tiger parenting shown by her utterances towards her mother.

자모들의 치맛바람: 1960년대 교육계 이슈와 어머니 표상

“치맛바람”은 자녀의 학업과 입시를 위해 극성을 부리는 어머니들의 대표적인 표상이다. 1960년대 특정 시기를 중심으로 신문에서 자녀 교육에 열심인 어머니들을 부정적인 시각으로 그려내는데 “치맛바람”이라는 은유를 활용되기 시작하였으며 교육계의 특정 사건을 설명하며 자주 언급되었다. 그 이후로 “치맛바람”은 현재까지 어머니들의 교육열, 교육계의 이슈와 여성혐오, 가부장제 등을 동시에 보여주는 대표적인 키워드가 되었다. 본 연구에서는 1960년대 교육 분야에서 “치맛바람”이라는 표현이 어떻게 시작되었으며 어떠한 사건과 상황을 논의하면서 등장하였는지 그 구체적인 맥락을 추적하였다. 이 연구에서는 네이버 뉴스 라이브러리와 국사편찬위원회 한국사 데이터베이스를 활용하여 1960년 1월 1일부터 1969년 12월 31일까지 10년간 “치맛바람” 키워드가 포함된 기사 총 364건을 추출하였으며 연도별, 지면별, 용례별로 구분하였다. 그 결과 신문기사 속 “치맛바람” 키워드는 1960년대 자모회의 교내 잡부금 수금 업무와 서울시내 일류 중학교 입시전략, 그리고 “6학년 담임교사 헌장”과 같은 교육계 이슈를 아우르고 있었다. 또한 “치맛바람” 어머니 이미지는 신문기사를 통해 부정적으로 그려졌는데 이는 당시 교육 현장 전면에 나서는 여성에 대한 사회의 시선인 동시에, 주체성을 가진 여성에 대한 혐오를 구축해나가는 과정이었다. 신문기사에서 재현한 “치맛바람”의 어머니는 식민지 시기에 초등교육을 받은 서울 시내 중산층 이상의 유한계급 출신으로 한정되었다. 결국 1960년대 신문기사 속 “치맛바람”은 당시의 사회의 지배적인 현상으로 치환할 수 없고 “치맛바람” 어머니 역시 보편적인 어머니 표상으로 간주할 수 없다.

Survivors “Surviving Well” and “Surviving Poorly”: Reflections on the Limitations and Possibilities of Transformative Justice

Survivors “Surviving Well” and “Surviving Poorly”: Reflections on the Limitations and Possibilities of Transformative Justice

Developmental trajectories of children’s sibling jealousy after the birth of a sibling: Strict parental control, parenting stress and parental depression as pre-birth predictors

This longitudinal research identified the developmental trajectories of sibling jealousy in firstborn children (M age = 49.9 months; 55% boys) among 107 Chinese families from 1 to 12 months after the birth of a younger sibling. Four sibling jealousy trajectories were identified: (a) low-increasing, (b) middle-stable, (c) high-stable, and (d) sharp-increasing. Trajectory group membership varied as a function of pre-birth parental factors including strict parental control (i.e., tiger parenting), parenting stress, and parental depression. These results highlight the benefit of examining the development of sibling jealousy over the transition to siblinghood and the importance to recognize pre-birth parental characteristics, especially paternal factors, as determinants when identifying children who may be at greater risk of adjustment difficulties following the birth of a younger sibling.

An economic analysis of tiger parenting: Evidence from child developmental delay or learning disability

A controversy over “tiger parenting” was provoked by the book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.” While the media and public often focus on its cultural implications and effectiveness in child-bearing, and economics literature focuses on the choice of parenting style with respect to economic conditions, this article takes a step further and examines the operation of parenting style by studying the economic implications related to a common method used by “tiger parents” in parenting their children: punishment. We argue that if parents employ punishment as an instrument to discipline their children to exert more effort in their human capital investment, the possibility of punishment should be increasing in children's capability. We test this hypothesis by investigating the effect of children's developmental delay or learning disabilities on the likelihood of parents punishing their children in case their academic results are below expectations, and find supportive evidence. Surprisingly, we find no evidence on parents being more kind to children with development deficiency.

Parenting Practice Profiling and Its Associated Factors among Secondary Vocational School Students in China.

Background: Parenting styles have a tremendous influence on a child’s development and behavior. Studies on parenting styles using latent profile analysis have been increasing in recent years. However, there are few such studies conducted in China, especially concerning joint parenting styles (that simultaneously characterize maternal and paternal practices), which are held over the age group of secondary vocational school students. This study aimed to identify the profiles of parenting styles and their associated factors among the parents of secondary vocational school students in China, based on natural samples and not a predetermined model. Method: Data were drawn from a cross-sectional study conducted among 3180 students from six secondary vocational schools in Shanghai Municipality and Shaanxi Province. A total of 2392 students who have lived with their parents for most of their lifetime were included in the study. Latent profile analysis was used to identify the profiles of parenting styles of the respondent’s parents. Multinominal logistic regression models were used to examine the association between parenting style and demographic characteristics and family background and adolescent outcomes. Results: We identified five latent profiles: “free-range parenting” (27.05%), “behavioral monitoring parenting” (33.65%), “authoritative parenting” (11.75%), “psychological control parenting” (14.38%) and “tiger parenting” (13.17%). The associations between these profiles and adolescent outcomes indicated that these profiles were rational. Participants’ gender, grade, residential area, family economic level, parental marital relationship, and parental educational level were predictive factors for parenting styles. Conclusions: The parenting styles held over secondary vocational school students were somewhat different from Baumrind’s parenting style model. A considerable number of students received a parenting style that might predispose them to behavioral and mental health outcomes and merit a tailored intervention using the predictive factors of parenting styles.

Book Review of Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Publishing Group.

Book Review of Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Publishing Group.

Book Review of Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Publishing Group.

Book Review of Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Publishing Group.

Academic Socialization From an “Informed Distance”: Low-Income Chinese American Adolescents’ Perceptions of Their Immigrant Parents’ Educational Messages

Background/Context: Despite research that has rebutted the tiger parent stereotype, the perception that Asian immigrant parents enact overly strict and controlling educational practices continues to be widespread and entrenched. This stereotype is problematic because it constrains the understanding of Asian Americans to a one-dimensional group and engenders a false narrative of Asian American educational success as expected. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Using an intersectional lens, this study interrogates the stereotype of Asian immigrant parents as tiger parents. We examine how one subgroup of Asian American youth—lower income Chinese American adolescents (children of Chinese immigrants) spoke about their parents’ involvement in their schooling and educational expectations. Our aim is to center young people’s explanations to explore how they perceive parental educational socialization and whether it conforms to notions of tiger parenting. We posed the following three specific research questions: (1) How do these students speak about and understand the ways in which their parents monitor their schoolwork? (2) How do these students describe and understand their parents’ messaging of educational expectations? and (3) In what ways do these students depict parent–child communication in their families? Research Design: Participants were 32 ninth-grade low-income Chinese American children of immigrants. We conducted individual interviews focused on educational socialization in the home. We used a combination of inductive and theoretically driven thematic analysis and explored the extent to which students’ perspectives of their parents converged or diverged with the tiger parent stereotype. We adopted a working definition of tiger parenting based on categories related to parenting, including close monitoring of schoolwork, perceptions of high parent expectations for school performance and educational/career attainment, and parent-initiated communications regarding children’s academic lives and decisions. Findings/Results: Our analysis revealed that participants did not experience their parents’ educational involvement as conforming to the tiger parent stereotype. Instead, students were largely self-directed and described their parents as exercising basic monitoring of schoolwork, conveying generic and pragmatic educational and career expectations, and trusting their children overall to manage schoolwork and share key school-related information as needed. We introduce a concept that we call “informed distance” as more salient for understanding our participants’ experiences. Conclusions/Recommendations: Educators must interrupt the tiger parent and model minority stereotypes to make room for a fuller and more complex understanding of Asian American students’ experiences and ensure their educational needs are equitably addressed. Teachers and counselors can play an affirmative role in educational guidance for Chinese American students.

Negotiating Racialized Discourses and Navigating Racism in U.S. Schools: Understanding Chinese Immigrants’ Parenting Identities and Practices Through an AsianCrit Lens

This article draws on Asian Critical Theory (AsianCrit) and racial literacy to examine how Chinese immigrant parents in one U.S. metropolitan area negotiated their parenting identity, and how they addressed racism faced by their children at school. Our analysis of interview data indicated that while some parents internalized “Tiger Mom” and model minority discourses and focused exclusively on their children's academic success, others countered such discourses to value their children's emotional and mental well-being. Parents adopted a range of strategies to navigate racism and to counter or reframe racialized discourses. This study highlights the importance of developing racial literacy among immigrant parents and institutional responses from schoools to address issues of racism and discrimination.

Book Review of: Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Books.

Book Review of: Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Books.

Book Review of: Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Publishing Group.

Book Review of: Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Publishing Group.

Book Review of: Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Publishing Group.

Book Review of: Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Publishing Group.

Book Review of: Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Books.

Book Review of: Chua, Amy. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. New York: Penguin Books.

SKY Castle: Consuming Education from the Cases of Two Tiger Parents

The research aimed to analyze how the Korean series, SKY Castle, successfully captured the idea that education could becommoditized in consumer culture for ensuring class mobility, which was majorly done by two exemplary tiger parents inKorea. Methodologically, the research applied a qualitative approach and employed a detailed analysis of the main character and one supporting character, Han Suhjin and Cha Minhyuk, respectively. Both characters’ actions and utterances would be selectively used to support the arguments of the research. Their relationship with other characters would also be used as further explanations. The research sheds light on how the two aforementioned characters fervently pursue and spend millions on education as it is perceived to strengthen their position in the social totem pole. The underlying theories to support the discussion are those of cultural and economic capital, consumption, commodification, and tiger parents. These are interconnected in the Korean context, especially due to the shifting value of education in the contemporary era.