Chinese-2

Chinese, American Chinese, and American Adolescent Attitudes Towards Parental Expectations of Academic Achievement and Independence.

David Profitt

University of Dayton

American, Chinese American and Chinese adolescents’ perceptions and acceptance of their parent’s attitudes towards academic excellence varies according to the culture in which the adolescents have been raised. Chen and Lan (1998) questioned students in Chinese high schools and both American and Chinese American students in U.S. high schools to measure their feelings of independence from their parents, their accepting of their parents advice and their level of concern regarding their parents’ expectations of achievement. Their methods, results and a discussion of their findings follow.

Across many cultures, it has been demonstrated that parents’ expectations have a positive correlation to the academic performance of their children (Chen and Lan, 1998). If adolescents’ parents expect them to do well, and have communicated this expectation from an early age, then it is likely that these adolescents will performance well in school. The ideas and philosophy of Confucius have long influenced the Chinese culture. Confucian ideology encourages scholarly attributes, self-improvement, and the unity of the family. Along the lines of these traditional beliefs, Chinese youth are obedient and concerned about family expectations. Chinese youth work hard to receive high marks in order to not disgrace their family. It is also noted that Chinese parents’ expectations and rules seldom require reinforcement, and that Chinese youth naturally live up to and often exceed their parents’ expectations.

Adolescents in America are more independent than Chinese Youth (Chen and Lan 1998). Exclusively in America, and only in recent decades, adolescents are given almost equal status as adults, leading to greater freedom for self-expression and assertion. Simply, Americans are individualistic and practice self-realization; Chinese follow group norms and traditional values of respect and conformity.

Experiment

Method

Chen and Len (1998) gave questionnaires to 10^th grade Chinese, American Chinese, and American students. All groups were controlled for gender, were of middle socioeconomic class, and were of urban populations. The questionnaire was created by Chen and Len and judged by a panel of nine experts to measure independence – feeling independent from vs. obedient to parents; acceptance – willingness to accept parental advice; and familism – the rate of concern about parents’ expectations of achievement. The questionnaires were distributed by teachers and returned by mail. The Chinese American group was a mix of first and second generation Americans. A one-way ANOVA was used to show that these two subgroups did not significantly differ.

Results

The American and Chinese students differed significantly in their responses to questions regarding familism and acceptance, but not independence (Chen and Lan, 1998). All three groups showed high levels of independence. The Chinese students showed higher familism and acceptance than their American counterparts. On all three question groups, there were no significant differences between Chinese and Chinese American students. Additionally, no significant differences were found between the Chinese American and American students. In all cases, the scores of the Chinese Americans were between those of the Chinese and American groups.

Discussion

The fact that the Chinese American students consistently scored between the Chinese students and the American students suggests that the Chinese American students may be in a transition phase, accepting facets of both their Chinese heritage and American culture (Chen and Lan, 1998). Recently, with the "open door" policy of China, the Chinese civilization has been inundated with Western culture. Chen and Lan suggest that it is possible that this shift has reduced the disproportion of scores among the cultures. It is also noted that the scores of independence among the three groups did not differ significantly. For the Chinese and Chinese American students, this finding goes against the traditional Chinese familial values of unity and respect.

Chen and Lan (1998) point to research that shows that there is a positive correlation between an adolescent’s academic performance and the adolescent’s parent’s expectations. They also state that it is further necessary for the parents to clearly communicate their expectations to their children. Chen and Lan further point to research which shows that in many cultures, including both Americans and Chinese cultures, the child often sets the degree of parental influence. Chen and Lan’s finding that all three adolescent groups held a strong sense of independence supports this last statement.

Future studies should look at the influence of parents on their adolescent children’s attitudes towards achievement separate from the parents’ personal desires as to what the child will become. It may be that parents’ and adolescents’ attitudes towards achievement are positively correlated, while the adolescents’ and parents’ definitions of achievement are very different. Parents may instill the quality of achievement onto their children, and the children use this in achieving their own goals, even when contrary to familial traditions and expectations. Chen and Lan did not report the levels of independence, acceptance and familism shown by the three groups. The researchers only recorded whether one group scored differently than the other. Without being given a definition of each group’s level of independence, acceptance, or familism, it is difficult to extrapolate whether the Chinese group’s high familism is realistically correlated with their high acceptance. Though their acceptance of parent’s advice is high, their level of familism could be low in comparison. If this were the case, it would support the concept that adolescents learn from their parents’ examples, but they use the wisdom for goals unique from those of their parents. This idea is supported by the research of Lin and Fu (1990), who point out that while Chinese parents rate higher than American parents on emphasis on achievement and parental control, they also rate higher than American parents on encouragement of independence. This suggest that Chinese parents may offer an environment for their children that is not only structured for academic success, but offers the adolescents freedom to express independence in choosing their future paths.

 

References

Chen, H. & Lan, W. (1998). Adolescent’ perceptions of their parents’ academic expectation: comparison of American, Chinese-American, and Chinese high school students. Adolescence, 33(130), 335-339.

Lin, Chin-Yau Cindy & Fu, Victoria R. (1990). A Comparison of child-rearing practices among Chinese, immigrant Chinese, and Caucasian-American parents . Child Development, 61, 429-433.

Filed under: EDC 531 Personality & Human Development Across the Lifespan
Copyright: May, 2002 - David Profitt