The Role of Parents' Control in Early Adolescents' Psychological Functioning: A Longitudinal Investigation in the United States and China
Wang, Qian
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/82118
Description
Title
The Role of Parents' Control in Early Adolescents' Psychological Functioning: A Longitudinal Investigation in the United States and China
Author(s)
Wang, Qian
Issue Date
2006
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Pomerantz, Eva M.
Department of Study
Psychology
Discipline
Psychology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Psychology, Developmental
Language
eng
Abstract
"The goal of this research was to compare the effects of three dimensions of parents' control (i.e., psychological autonomy support, psychological control, and behavioral control) on children's emotional and academic functioning in the US and China. Seventh graders (M age = 12.73 years, SD = .41) from the US (N = 373) and China ( N = 433) participated in a two-wave study spanning six months. At each wave, children reported on their parents' control as well as their own emotional (i.e., positive and negative emotions, life satisfaction, and self-esteem) and academic (i.e., goal investment and learning strategies) functioning. Teachers rated children's helpless behavior in the academic context and children's grades were obtained from school records. The measures were internally and temporally reliable in both countries; their construct validity as well as between-wave and -country metric equivalence was evidenced in Confirmatory Factor Analyses. Structural Equation Modeling analyses were conducted to examine the reciprocal effects between parents' control and children's functioning over time. In both countries, there were few effects over time of children's functioning on parents' control. As to the effects over time of parents' control on children's functioning, supporting cultural similarities, in both countries, parents' psychological autonomy support predicted children's enhanced emotional and academic functioning, parents' psychological control predicted children's dampened emotional functioning, and parents' behavioral control predicted children's enhanced academic functioning; supporting cultural differences, the beneficial effects of parents' autonomy support on children's functioning were generally stronger in the US than in China. Taken together, these results depict a picture of ""universality without the uniformity"" as to the role of parents' control in early adolescents' psychological functioning in the US and China."
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