‘Tiger mom, panda dad’: a study of contemporary Chinese parenting profiles

ABSTRACT

The goal of this study was to explore the inter-parental differences and the major clusters of Chinese parenting profile in a sample of preschoolers’ fathers and mothers in urban China. Eighty-six Chinese couples in Shenzhen completed a parenting style questionnaire, and four couples were interviewed to provide additional illumination. A paired t-test was used to find inter-parental differences and cluster analysis was used to find major clusters of parenting profiles. Mothers were more authoritarian than fathers. Three major clusters of parenting profiles were found: easy-going parenting, followed by tiger parenting and supportive parenting. Inter-parental differences existed among these couples, and ‘tiger moms’ and ‘panda dads’ were common in these Chinese families.

KEYWORDS:

• Parenting profile
• maternal parenting
• paternal parenting
• Chinese parenting
• co-parenting differences

Acknowledgements

This is the preliminary study of a larger PhD study to be conducted by the first author. The authors would like to thank all the Chinese parents who participated in the study and teachers who facilitated data collection in the kindergarten in Shenzhen, China. The authors also thank Ms Lin Xunyi for statistical assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sha Xie is a Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. She obtained a master degree from the University of Oxford (M.Sc. Financial Economics) and a second master from the University of Hong Kong (MEd. Early Childhood Education). Her research interests center on economics and parenting, early child development, and kindergarten readiness.

Hui Li, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education (ECE) at the University of Hong Kong, where he holds the Program Director of Master of Education (MEd) and the Coordinator of MEd (ECE). He is also the Distinguished Professor of Chutian Scholar Program at Hubei University of Arts and Science. His research interests lie in early Chinese literacy, developmental psycholinguistics, early childhood curriculum and pedagogy, and educational policy.