Summary
The study shows that Chinese mothers regarded a social theme to be a cause of their children’s negative emotions while U.S. mothers were focused on a personal theme. Unlike U.S. mothers, Chinese ones centered more on social interactions in relation to negative events as opposed to the U.S. mothers, whose focus was on autonomous preferences and opinions of their children. According to the study, mother to child conversations among Euro-American families were more elaborate, more autonomous and more evaluative and had more personal themes as compared to the relationships in Chinese families.
Mother to child conversations in the latter families was described as more repetitive and having a greater emphasis on social themes and interaction as compared to those among U.S. families. Euro-American mothers used conversational turns to make the conversation interactive while the Chinese women used repetition.
The children in the study adopted the cultural systems of their families because European and American children were as autonomous and elaborate as their mothers were, while the Chinese children were as social as their mothers were. Euro-American children gave more information about the emotional causes of their experiences. The Chinese children, on the contrary, indicated attributions for emotional experiences to themselves. Chinese mothers unlike Euro-American mothers provided an emotional resolution to their children.
Therapeutic implications
The emphasis on personal themes and autonomy can be associated with beliefs of individualism among Americans and Europeans that place the child in an autobiographical form of culture. Euro-American children are thus more interested in their own identity and not the outer society. This gives rise to capitalism and egoism because individuals focus on their own statuses and achievements. This makes Euro-Americans less social as compared to their counterparts from Asia.
The Chinese emphasis is put on social themes that lead to bringing up individuals who hold great respect for society. In Chinese families, one does not place one’s interests before the others. Instead, they should always think about the rest members of the family before embarking on any activity. As a result, greater harmony is achieved among the Chinese because there is a need to examine one’s self in the context of the others.
The different approaches taken by the different cultures in the study indicate that Euro-American children learn to do things and solve problems independently. A Euro-American child is able to address the causes of their negative emotional experiences in the attainment of regulation since they understand where their negative events are resulting from. On the other hand, Chinese children do not deal with the actual causes of their negative emotional experiences. Chinese children continue suffering discreetly because the way they address their negative events is not in consonance with the actual causes. However, Chinese children become more morally upright and respectful of their elders than Euro-American children are.
Emotional regulation is achieved through reassurance in Euro-American mother to child conversations, while the same is attained through the provision of correction strategies in Chinese mothers to child interactions. Euro-American children accommodate better because they deal with a negative event in a special and distinct way to solve the issue, while Chinese children are conditional. When faced with a negative event, Chinese children develop strategies connected with others. They evaluate their individual demeanor in relation to that of the others and always change their own behavior even in case it is not their fault