Chinese culture has questionable values that may seem inadequate for non-Eastern people. Xia et al. (2020) have written an article “Chinese parental involvement and children’s school readiness: The moderating role of parenting style”, which exposes these cultural differences. The main finding of this study was that children of Chinese families were better equipped for school, when the family employed greater parental involvement combined with high authoritative parenting style.
The reason for such correlation lies in cultural norms of Chinese society. Specifically, Xia et al., (2020) point to the prevalence of a cultural norm according to which proper Chinese parents should supervise their children’s education and assist them. An especially peculiar finding is that the authoritative parenting style is effective as long as there is emotional warmth in the relations between parents and children.
These features are actually in line with the general understanding of Asian culture practices. As it was stated in “Differing Parenting Styles in Different Countries”, it is customary for Asian families to maintain physical presence of mothers to their infants constantly. This is a stark contrast to the Western culture, in which the appropriate way of managing vulnerable children is letting them sleep alone in order to foster self-reliance (Heine, 2020, p. 177). As such, any Western individual would probably be appalled by this Chinese practice precisely because personal autonomy is fostered from childhood.
It should not be surprising that Westerners find the authoritative parenting style with high parental involvement inappropriate. After all, individualism is an important part of Western cultures, which implies that children should find their own motivation to study (Heine, 2020). It is reasonable to suggest that a Western family would not achieve positive results, if it incorporated authoritative parenting style. As such, cultural differences determine the appropriateness of parental control in Western and Eastern cultures.
References
Heine, S. J. (2020). Cultural Psychology (4th ed.). W. W. Norton.
Xia, X., Hackett, R. K., & Webster, L. (2020). Chinese parental involvement and children’s school readiness: The moderating role of parenting style. Early Education and Development, 31(2), 250-268. Web.