Delving Into the Minds of Chinese Parents: What Beliefs Motivate Their Learning‐Related Practices?

Abstract

The academic success of Chinese students has drawn much attention from researchers and the public. Evidence suggests that Chinese parents’ learning‐related practices contribute to their children’s high achievement, but what motivates these practices? In this article, we address this question by focusing on Chinese parents’ beliefs, which can serve as a framework that guides their practices. First, we review recent research on Chinese parents’ learning‐related practices as well as their beliefs about children’s learning and parenting. Then, we consider how these beliefs, which are constantly shaped by the cultural and social context, may underlie Chinese parents’ learning‐related practices. We conclude by discussing directions for research in a changing world.

Simple View of Reading in Chinese: A One-Stage Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling

“…For example, recent research on the componential model of reading highlight that social-emotional factors (e.g., motivation and mindset) and environmental factors (e.g., home literacy environment, teaching practices; e.g., The Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Reading: Kim, 2020;The Componential Model of Reading: M. Li et al, 2020) can serve as strong predictors of reading comprehension via foundational reading skills (e.g., decoding). Moreover, these social-emotional and environmental factors seemed to be influenced by culture (Ng & Wei, 2020;Pomerantz et al, 2014). All these evidence, taken together, imply that SVR may have cross-culture (e.g., skills) and culture-specific (e.g., motivation, mindset, and teaching practices) features, a rather interesting hypothesis worth investigation with meta-analysis in the future.…”

“…Li et al, 2020) can serve as strong predictors of reading comprehension via foundational reading skills (e.g., decoding). Moreover, these social-emotional and environmental factors seemed to be influenced by culture (Ng & Wei, 2020; Pomerantz et al, 2014). All these evidence, taken together, imply that SVR may have cross-culture (e.g., skills) and culture-specific (e.g., motivation, mindset, and teaching practices) features, a rather interesting hypothesis worth investigation with meta-analysis in the future.…”

Parental Effort and Outcome Goals_Preprint

“…Contemporarily, passing the national examinations with superior grades in order to enter topranked high schools and universities is still regarded as the most effective means of obtaining a better job and future success in different East Asian societies (Shin, 2012;Tsuneyoshi, 2011;Yu et al, 2018). Under the historical background and social milieu described above, parents with East Asian roots have high expectations regarding their children's school grades (Ng & Wei, 2020;Stevenson et al, 1990), consider academic success to be an important attribute in children (Shek & Chan, 1999), and regard ensuring children's academic success as their own responsibility (Ng & Wang, 2019). The cultural tradition of holding parents responsible for children's accomplishments, especially in school, has been elevated to the point that Chinese mothers' self-worth is more contingent on their children's performance compared to their western counterparts (Ng et al, 2014).…”

Maternal achievement-oriented psychological control: Implications for adolescent academic contingent self-esteem and mathematics anxiety

“…Several studies demonstrate that Chinese students displayed higher levels of mathematics anxiety compared with students in other countries (European countries in particular) even though they perform very well on standardized tests in mathematics, such as PISA (Frenzel et al, 2007; Lee, 2009; Morony et al, 2013). Parental psychological control may be a particularly salient factor that contributes this phenomenon as studies show that Chinese parents are more likely to use controlling tactics as a way of discipline (for a review, see Ng & Wei, 2020; Wuyts et al, 2015). From the perspective of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1995), parental psychological control is not conducive to optimal functioning of children because it thwarts individuals’ need for autonomy.…”

“…Achievement-oriented psychological control is the use of intrusive parenting strategies to make children act in accordance with parental standards for performance, for example, in the academic realm (Soenens et al, 2010), which is common among Chinese parents (Wuyts et al, 2015). In a recent review, Ng and Wei (2020) argued that academic achievements are highly regarded in Chinese communities partly due to the broader social environment. For instance, education is not only seen as a way to foster intellectual growth in children, but it also represents a valuable opportunity for children to develop the virtue of diligence (Li et al, 2014).…”