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Relations Among Neighborhood, Parenting, and Effortful Control in Chinese American Children

Abstract

Although an extensive literature links children's self-regulation abilities with both distal (e.g., neighborhood) and proximal (e.g., parenting) contexts, scarce attention has been paid to identifying potential cultural factors (e.g., ethnic density) in this association. Methodologically, most research has utilized cross-sectional data, with few studies examining the cumulative impact of multiple contexts on children's development and adjustment. Furthermore, it is unknown how these contexts are linked with different self-regulation outcomes among Asian American children. To address these gaps in the literature, I studied 258 first- and second- generation Chinese American immigrant children, using a combination of structured interviews, questionnaire measures, and behavioral tasks completed by children, parents, and teachers. Across two waves of data collection, I investigated the mediated and interactive relations of neighborhood (disadvantage, ethnic density) and parenting style (authoritarian, authoritative) to children's effortful control outcomes. Contrary to expectations, parenting style did not mediate the relation between neighborhood disadvantage and children's effortful control. However, children of families residing in neighborhoods with a higher Asian concentration were more likely to rate their parents as using an authoritarian parenting style, which subsequently predicted lower levels of effortful control. I also found that authoritative parenting for these children had a weaker benefit on their effortful control compared to children residing in less ethnically dense neighborhoods, as rated by their teachers. Taken together, these findings suggest that use of an authoritarian parenting style is more culturally normative in ethnically dense Asian American neighborhoods and may serve as a risk factor for poorer effortful control in this population. Additionally, residing in ethnically dense neighborhoods may confer some risk to Chinese American immigrant children's development of effortful control, regardless of their parents' parenting style. As children reach middle childhood, their perception of their parents' parenting style appears to play a role in determining their self-regulation outcomes, and this extends to both home and school contexts (i.e., both child and teacher reports of effortful control).

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