Introduction
Parents are an important influence in shaping a person’s behavior and personality. Parents of different cultures will raise their children very differently, explaining why cultural differences continue to exist throughout generations. Asian and Western parents have drastic differences in the way they rear their offspring.
Asian parents tend to be more authoritative whereas Western parents tend to be more permissive. As a result, Asians adults and Western adults become different in terms of personality and behavior.
This paper argues that the manner in which parents raise their children varies in accordance to culture; Asian parents raise children to be more collectivistic, while Western parents raise their children to become more individualistic.
The theory of individualism-collectivism is an effective way to compare how different Asian and Westerners turn out as a result of their parenting. In doing so, it is necessary to understand Baumrind’s parenting style typology. The three types are, authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive.
Baumrind explained that early parent-child relationships influence the succeeding behavior of the child as he/she grows and becomes an adult (Keshavarz and Rozumah 69). Such parent-child relationship can be categorized into authoritarian and authoritative.
Authoritarian parents are: “highly controlling and demanding but affectively cold, requiring children to be responsive to parental demand” (Keshavarz and Rozumah 67). They expect their children to obey family rules, and therefore, they ensure that children know that disobedience is punishable.
They do not praise often; children of authoritarian parents are not very confident or aggressive. Authoritative parents, on the other hand, are warm, responsive and involved. They respect, more so than authoritarian parents, the child’s viewpoint and opinions, which ensure that the children of this type of parents grow up more independent and confident (Keshavarz and Rozumah 68).
Keshavarz and Rozumah argued that in Asia or non-western regions where collectivist cultures are practiced, parents practice behaviors that are deemed to be consistent with authoritarian parenting styles by not practicing beliefs or attitudes that are characteristic of authoritarian style of Western parents.
Asian parents who are inherently stricter and pressure the child into being obedient, create generations of children who grow up to be collectivized. They tend to stick to family and follow a generic path in life set for them.
They respond to their parents needs and obey their parents’ demands. In contrast, Western parents are authoritative, raising children to become independent, confident and individualistic. Because they have been raised in an environment respectful of their opinions, Western adults exhibit more assertive and confident behavior (Burns and John 490).
Difference between Western and Asian Parents
Western parents are authoritative while the Asian parents are authoritarian. Asian parents are restrictive, dominating and hostile, since they are motivated by parental obedience.
According to Western parents, hostility or strictness is considered a demonstration of parental aggressiveness and domination, which might impact negatively on the growth and development of the child. Asian parents consider child rearing as a form of child training that the parent should fully undertake as an obligation (Chao 1113).
Asian parents emphasize a child’s interpersonal interactions as opposed to inherent and personality qualities. Asian parents emphasize the social development of a child as opposed to the psychological qualities. This is totally contrary to the western parents where personality qualities are emphasized.
Western parents direct the activities of a child rationally and in a result-oriented manner. Western parenting emphasize the development of the child for an optimum psychological, academic and motivational functioning (Gorman 74).
Theories of Different Parenting Styles
There are three main theories of parental styles, which will be critically analyzed in this section: these are the authoritarian parenting that employs coercive techniques and demands children compliance; the authoritative parenting style which employs inductive disciplinary techniques and; the third one is the permissive theory of parenting.
These theories of parenting styles were largely influenced by Baumrind who conceptualized them in 1971. These parenting styles capture the following main aspects: maturity, communication styles, warmth, nurturance and involvement.
Authoritarian parenting: this theory of parenting posits that parents are supposed to be very strict and demonstrate some sense of harshness. These characters of the parent are aimed at obtaining the obedience of the child and to enable the child to yield to parental demands as opposed to the parent yielding to the demands of the child.
Permissive theory of parenting, on the other hand, posits that the parents attach few restrictions, rules or limits to the conduct of their children. Consequently, there is authoritative parenting theory, which implies that those parents that display some sense of flexibility and responsiveness to the demands of the child are still in control of their child’s behavior (Ang and Dion 132).
Authoritative parenting is a characteristic of European American parents and it is instrumental in promoting the psychological growth and academic achievements of the adolescents.
Authoritative style of parenting is considered beneficial as compared to authoritarian and permissive style because it promotes better outcome from the child like enhanced psychological competence, adaptive functioning, self-reliance and high self-esteem, and it is taken to be the perfect parenting style aimed at optimal development of the child.
Whereas authoritative parenting is correlated with positive self-perceptions, authoritarian parenting is correlated with negative self-perceptions due to negative child and adolescent outcomes. Authoritarian parenting is common with Asian families and particularly prevalent in Chinese parents (Ang and Dion 132).
Concerning authoritarian parenting, children are expected to be submissive to their parents and the demands of their parents; in this regard, the parents are supposed to be strict and emotionally detached (Canadian Centre for Science and Education 217).
Collectivism-Individualism
The theory of collectivism-individualism is instrumental in analyzing the behavioral and the cultural environment that influence various types of parenting. Collectivism-individualism explains the way people identify themselves in regard to others.
Collectivism-individualism theory places a lot of emphasis on independent relationships between an individual and others. Individualism theory, on the other hand, stresses on individuals’ independence from others.
It is these societal and cultural factors that are associated with the diversities in collectivism-individualism that characterize the human behavior. Individualism-collectivism is related to the variations in human thoughts and conduct in such aspects as emotions, morality and objectives.
Societies that embrace individualism tend to develop some sense of emotional independence, autonomy and assertiveness. In this case, the link between individuals is very loose (Keshavarz and Rozumah 68).
Societies with collectivism tendencies are considered more sociable, and they value security, harmony and the integrity of their families. With individualism, different directions yield a variety of family interactions. Individualism theory places a lot of emphasize autonomy, distinctiveness and self-containment.
Collectivism describes functions by enhancing social and group cohesion. It also stresses that children should be in conformity with their parents. Collectivism and individualism are the two theories that indicate the existing differences in various kinds of parenting behaviors, children and adolescent outcomes in various communities (Keshavarz and Rozumah 69).
Comparison
Demonstration that authoritarian foster strong sense of collectivism while Western parents who are permissive; provide room for their children.
The different forms of parenting are influenced either indirectly or directly by the two cultural theories of individualism and collectivism. The two models have a lot of impact on parenting behavior. In countries practicing collectivism, parents are entrusted with the responsibility of promoting better values like interdependence, obedience, conformity and strict respect for principles of social conventions.
The practices of authoritarian parents in collectivist groups demonstrate that individuals have to suppress their requirement as well as, consider the interests and the demand for others. Authoritarian parenting is more relevant in a collectivist environment. The positive behavior of Asian children is linked to the authoritarian nature of their parents and parental warmth and acceptance that come with it.
This is opposite to the Western parents who consider such a behavior a negative dimension of parenting. Authoritarian parenting is associated with positive development of the child. Authoritarian parenting styles are understood to be caring and concerned in the context of the Asian environment but in the context of the European, they are treated to be dictatorial and domineering (Keshavarz and Rozumah 66).
Children brought up by authoritative parents demonstrate some sense of deviant behaviors and develop some rudeness in school while cultivating a difficult relationship with the parents and teachers (Supple 8).
How children in Western and Asian Grow
The collectivist asian children grow up having been poorly nurtured socially, but their conduct and behavior will have been strictly controlled due to the rigidity, strictness and the assertiveness of their parents who put limited emphasis on affection and nurturance. The individualism behavior of the western child enables him/her to grow with a lot of affection and is well nurtured.
Children brought up in a collectivist environment of Asian culture develop some negative outcomes like minimal self-reliance, with low self-esteem, reduced happiness, small achievement motivation and increased use of drugs.
Children growing up in an individualistic environment are considered to be the best and their development will be complete (Timpano, Keough, Mahaffey, Schmidt and Abramowitz 153).
In Asia, no child dares to bat an eye lid or dare refuse or complain when the parent makes a certain decision or decides to discipline the child; this is opposite to the development of a child in the west where a light reprimanding will prompt him to complain, or they will question the parent as to why that is being done to them.
Asian children also sleep with their parents even at the age of five years as opposed to the west where even a new-born baby is made to sleep in the cot. In Vietnam, for example where authoritarianism and collectivism are practiced, the parents tend to be dictatorial hence leading to the development of children who are prone to conflict.
In this environment of parenting, children grow up having been depressed and with low self-esteem due to the harsh parenting styles (Nguyen 337).
Theory of Non-verbal Communication
Theory of non-verbal communication is instrumental in analyzing various parenting styles. Communication is instrumental in everyday relationship, and it enhances the quality of human interaction.
Asian children, due to their parenting styles place a lot of emphasis in non-verbal communication. In Asian culture, parents encourage their children to be obedient instead of encouraging them to be assertive. Americans parents, on the other hand, encourage their children to behave well since they consider it a very important instrument of social competence.
These cultural values play a role in the way children communicate with their parents and other people or how children will communicate at the course of their interactions. As a way of preserving interpersonal harmony and to avoid confrontations, parents of Asian culture value non-verbal or subtle communication as a way of instilling humility in their children.
In Asian cultures, parents value the most physical contact in parenting as opposed to vocalization hence children may be verbose very minimally and heavily rely on non-verbal or indirect communication. Children of Asian parents have been identified to display some sense of mutism.
The children normally behave well at home and perform exceptionally well in academics, but they exhibit noticeable shyness in class, particularly towards their teachers. This is considered as the failure of the parents to bring the children to conventional level of interaction (Sue and Sumie 238).
Theory of Power Distance
A family can be described based on its characteristics as a system as well as a power concept. The concept of power hierarchy and the proximity and distance in human interactions are used to explain the modern functioning of a family as an institution and parenting a part of a family (Wilkinson 149).
This theory explains how the parents or other superior members of the family are respected based on their power; it is the description on whether parents should allow power to be distributed equally between them and their children.
Power distance explains the extent to which children should accept their parents because of the power they wield more than them or that their decisions are right due to their higher position in the family.
Families conforming to this theory of power distance tend to have children who fear expressing themselves or are afraid to express doubts, and disagreements due to their strict parenting background.
In families where children and parents are very close and consult each other, it will lead to a scenario where they will consider themselves as equal. In families with large power distance, the children strictly fear their parents and the decisions of their parents are highly upheld (Triandis 139).
Conclusion
This essay has successfully demonstrated the ways in which Asian and Western parents raise their children and the differences in the techniques/styles. We can see that Western parents are more permissive and allow children to grow up and become more individualistic. Asian parents, in contrast, do not permit as much individualism, and instead reinforce collectivism by being authoritative.
This is why Westerners and Asians are very different; the way humans are raised has a significant impact on how the adult turns out. The styles of parenting vary from one society to another based on the cultures of those nations. The differences are conspicuous when comparing parenting styles in western and Asian regions due to the noticeable cultural difference between these countries.
The undertaking of research regarding various parental styles is an area of study that requires a lot of empirical research.
Having a vivid understanding of the societal culture in instrumental in predicting the difference in parental styles that is prevalent in a particular society and it will enable an individual to understand why particular differences exist, this notwithstanding, the beneficial effects of authoritative theory of parenting have been consistent in western and American societies.
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