DISCUSSION

§  Results from the current study suggest the importance of considering culture when examining parental socialization and children’s EF.

§  Consistent with past studies, our findings show that Chinese children had higher levels of EF as compared to US children.

§  Additionally, how parents cope with children’s negative emotions also differ across cultures. Specifically, while there were no differences in parent’s supportive reactions, Chinese mothers reported more unsupportive reactions, but less distress reactions.

§  Moreover, maternal distress reactions were negatively correlated with children’s EF, but only in US children. None of the parenting variables were associated with the Chinese children’s EF.

§  Maternal distress reactions may lead to increased stress in children leading to poorer EF. Moreover, it is possible that these parents may be modeling poor self control.

§  It is unclear however, why the relation between parenting was non-existent for Chinese children. The collectivistic idealism of Eastern cultures leads Asian children to develop a sense of personal inhibition in order to conform to group norms, while the Western individualistic culture emphasizes nurturing one’s own feelings and impulses (Reiser, Mark et al., 2014), thus perhaps these abilities are already so internalized at this age, that parenting no longer has an effect.

§  Researchers have long studied the effects of parenting styles on children across Eastern and Western cultures. This study underscores the importance of maternal reactive behavior on US children. Future research should further investigate mechanisms for Chinese children’s developing EF.

§  Future research should also investigate, the extent to which these pattern of relationships hold for other types of self-regulation tasks, such as emotional inhibition or control.

§  Other socialization mechanisms such as peers, and schools, as well as individual characteristics such as temperament should be further investigated.

RESULTS

To compute EF, we standardized and summed both measures of inhibitory control. To test whether there were cultural differences in children’s EF, we ran a multivariate analysis of variance controlling for gender and age. Consistent with past studies, our findings show that Chinese children had higher levels of EF as compared to US children F(4,88) = 12.65, p = .001. There were no culture by gender interactions. Figure 1 displays the means and standard errors. Next we look at levels of cultural differences in parents’ reactions to children’s negative affect. We ran a MANCOVA, controlling for age and gender. Analyses suggested cultural differences in two of the subcategories: unsupportive, F(1, 85) = 15.43, p <.001, and maternal distress reactions F(1, 85) = 5.13, p =.03. Chinese mothers scored higher on unsupportive reactions, but lower on distress reactions. There were no cultural differences with regards to supportive reactions. Finally, we tested the relations between parenting style and children’s EF. Partial correlations, controlling for gender and age, were ran for each country. Results show that distress reactions were significantly correlated with executive functioning (r= -33, p = .03), for the US children. Interestingly, however, there was no relationship between any of the parenting styles and Chinese children’s EF. To test, if culture moderated the relationship between maternal distress reactions and children’s EF, we ran a regression model, with gender and age in the first step, culture and distress reactions in the second step, and the interaction term culture x distress reactions in the final step. The interaction term was significant, b = .46, p =.016. The final model explained 30% of the variance in children’s EF. F(5,85) = 7.22, p <.001. Figure 2 illustrates the results. Figure 2 Culture moderates the relations between maternal distress reactions and child executive functioning.

Shuang Shang, Carley Mirvis, Kellie Nissen, Marissa Schneider, Amanda Tarullo, Stacey N. Doan, Boston University

INTRODUCTION §  Executive functioning (EF) is a set of higher order cognitive processes that includes inhibitory control, working

memory, planning, and set shifting (Zelazo, Carter, Reznick, & Frye, 1997). §  Our study focuses mainly on the inhibitory aspect of EF known as “effortful control”, which refers to the ability to

inhibit a dominant response to perform a subordinate response (Rothbart & Bates, 1988).

§  A growing body of work argues the importance of parent child interactions in shaping the development of EF, specifically parental reactivity to children’s behavior.

§  Research has also found that Chinese children exhibit higher levels of EF than their Western counterparts, however, very little research has examined the extent to which the relationship of parent child interactions and the development of EF are universal across cultures.

The role of culture §  Culture shapes people’s everyday experience and behavior. Those practices may be crucial to the development of

human skills such as executive functioning.

§  Impulse control is also more highly valued and encouraged in Chinese preschool setting compared to the US (Tobin, Wu, & Davidson 1989). This finding is consistent with reports that in China, parents (Chao & Tseng, 2002) and teachers (Wang & Mao, 1996) stress the importance of self-control in everyday conduct.

Goals of the Study The purpose of the current study is to investigate cultural difference in children’s inhibitory control. Next, we examine the influence of parenting behavior, in particular how parents cope with children’s negative emotions, in predicting children’s executive function. Finally, we consider the role of culture as a possible moderator.

METHODS

Participants Ninety-six US and Chinese children participated in the study (M age = 55.25 months, 54% males).

Measures Parenting Style: Mothers were interviewed about their own parenting behavior using the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES). Three constructs from the survey were used in the present study to assess the degree to which parents perceive themselves as reactive to children’s negative affect in distressful situations. In particular: supportive parenting (emotion and situation focused problem solving), unsupportive parenting (minimizing or punishing children) and distress reactions (responding with negativity and distress). Parents were asked to rate each statement regarding the likelihood that they would respond in the ways listed for each item on a scale from 1-7 (1 = “Very Unlikely” , 7 = “Very Likely” ). Executive Functioning: Sun-Moon Stroop Task. Participants were asked to respond to picture cards of the sun and the moon. Children were instructed to say “day time” when presented with the moon card, and to say “night time” when presented with the sun card ( Diamond & Taylor, 1996 ). The test was completed in 16 trials composed of three randomized lists of sun and moon pictures, chosen at random for each participant. A total score was calculated for each child based on number of correctly identified cards out of a possible total of 16.

Pencil Tapping Task. Participants were instructed to tap a pencil on the table one time when the experimenter tapped twice, and to tap two times when the experimenter tapped once. (Diamond & Taylor, 1996). A total of 16 trials were administered. The order of the trials were presented in a random order and a total score was calculated for each child based on the number of correct trials.

Culture, Socialization and Children’s Executive Function

REFERENCES Available upon request.

Figure 1: Cultural differences in children’s EF

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