Contemporary Chinese parents’ socialization priorities for preschoolers: a mixed methods study

ABSTRACT

This mixed methods study focused on the socialization goals for preschool-aged children among parents from three small-sized cities located in northeastern China. A total of 154 parents with preschool-aged children completed questionnaires measuring parental socialization goals for children's social-emotional competence and academic achievement. Quantitative results showed that parents generally placed more importance on children's social-emotional skills than academic skills. Ten mothers were selected from the sample and participated in a semi-structured qualitative interview to help understand reasons for parents’ prioritization of social-emotional well-being over academic performance. Four themes emerged, including parents’ concerns about children's psychological well-being under excessive academic pressure, their desires to ‘protect’ children's childhood, their awareness of children's individual differences in intelligence and talent in learning, and their belief that good grades did not guarantee future success in life. Our findings highlight the importance of using mixed methods to deepen understanding of contemporary Chinese parents’ child-rearing ideologies.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese parents
• socialization goals
• preschoolers
• social-emotional skills
• academic skills

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Lixin Ren is a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Science, Mathematics, and Computer Education, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.

Carolyn Pope Edwards is Cather Professor Emeritus, Willa Cather professor and professor in the Departments of Psychology and Child, Youth, and Family Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.

Notes

1. All names are pseudo names.