This is proposal is for a new investigator. This study will longitudinally examine how parental control and parental involvement in school influence the school performance of Asian American and European American adolescents. This study will provide an understanding of the cultural processes underlying the effects of parental practices on adolescents' school performance by examining (1) the influence of parental belief systems on parental practices and (2) the cultural scripts for how adolescents and parents interpret such practices. This is a 3-year multi-method longitudinal study of adolescents in the 9th grade and their parents, comprised of three parts. In part one, adolescents will be asked to complete questionnaires consisting of the following: measures of parental control, parental involvement in school, their affective interpretations of parents' practices, and their school performance. In part two, parents of these adolescents, and measures of their parental belief systems. In part three, face-to-face, open-ended interviews will be conducted with a sub-sample of adolescents and parents about their interpretations of parental control. For parts one and two of the study, the sample will be composed of four ethnic groups: 400 Chinese Americans, 400 Filipino Americans, and 400 European Americans. Multiple group structural equation modeling will be used to examine across ethnic group the relationship between (1) parental practices and adolescents' school performance and adjustment and (2) parental beliefs and parental practices, and (3) to examine the moderating effects of ethnicity and adolescents' affective interpretations of parenting on the relationship between parental practices and adolescent school performance. Then Latent Growth Modeling techniques will be used to test these relationships across time. An additional sample of 400 Mexican Americans will also be included in this study as part of an IRPG collaborative proposal in which data from additional samples of Hispanic and African American youth are being collected by a separate, independent researcher (Craig Mason). For this collaboration, data from a portion of the adolescent and parent surveys involving the measures of parental control, adolescents' affective interpretations of the control, and adolescent's school performance and adjustment for each year will be pooled with similar data being collected by Dr. Mason.
| Wu, Chunxia; Chao, Ruth K (2017) Parent-Adolescent Relationships among Chinese Immigrant Families: An Indigenous Concept of Qin. Asian Am J Psychol 8:323-338 |
| Shen, Yishan; Kim, Su Yeong; Wang, Yijie et al. (2014) Language Brokering and Adjustment among Chinese and Korean American Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Model of Perceived Maternal Sacrifice, Respect for the Mother, and Mother-Child Open Communication. Asian Am J Psychol 5:86-95 |
| Wu, Chunxia; Chao, Ruth K (2011) Intergenerational cultural dissonance in parent-adolescent relationships among Chinese and European Americans. Dev Psychol 47:493-508 |
| Chao, Ruth K; Aque, Christine (2009) Interpretations of parental control by Asian immigrant and European American youth. J Fam Psychol 23:342-54 |
