Original Articles and Reviews

Perceived Social Change and Childrearing Attitudes in China

Xinyin Chen,1 Yufang Bian,2 Tao Xin,2 Li Wang,3 and Rainer K. Silbereisen4
Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, 2Department of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China, 3Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China, 4Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Jena, Germany
Abstract. The purpose of this study was to examine parents perceived social change and its relations with adolescents reports of childrearing attitudes in urban and rural China. The participants were high school students and their parents in a Northern region of China. Parents completed a measure of perceived social change, and the adolescents completed a measure of childrearing attitudes including parental warmth, control, and encouragement of independence. The results indicated that urban parents had higher scores than rural parents on major dimensions of perceived social change including work-related opportunities, self-improvement in work, and high-tech experiences. Urban adolescents reported lower parental control and higher parental encouragement of independence than rural adolescents. In addition, parents reports of opportunities and prospects were positively associated with adolescents reports of parental warmth and encouragement of independence in childrearing across the urban and rural groups, suggesting that parents who perceived more challenges and opportunities to pursue self-advancement and personal career goals were more likely to support the use of warm and sensitive parenting and to encourage their children to develop independent behaviors. The results indicated the implications of social change for socialization and adolescent development in Chinese context. Keywords: social change, childrearing, China
1

Developmental theorists have long argued that human lives carry the imprint of their social worlds, which are subject to continuous historical change (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Elder, 1974; Elder & Shanahan, 2006; Silbereisen, 2005). Consistent with this argument, research ndings have indicated the considerable implications of social, economic, and cultural changes for the development of children and adolescents during modernization in traditionally rural societies (e.g., Graves & Graves, 1983; Kagitcibasi & Ataca, 2005) and in the Great Depression in the 1930s in the United States (Elder, 1974). Recent studies in Eastern European nations (e.g., Flanagan, 2000; Silbereisen, 2000) have also revealed the pervasive effects of social and political changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall on the relationships, behaviors, and life adjustment of youth. Social and cultural changes may affect children and adolescents development through shaping socialization goals, beliefs, and practices. Kagitcibasi and Ataca (2005), for example, found that the socialization goals and attitudes of Turkish parents changed over the past three decades as a function of the transformation of the society. Turkish parents in 2003, particularly in urban families with high socioeconomic status (SES), valued autonomy more than those in 1975. Moreover, the parents in 2003 were more likely than the parents in 1975 to appreciate affective parent-child interactions. The urbanization and socioeconomic development were associated with a decline in material dependence within the family and increase in positive attitudes toward childrens independent and exploratory behaviors. Similar ndings concerning changes in parental attitudes toward
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independence and individuality have been reported in other societies such as Maya (e.g., Greeneld, Maynard, & Childs, 2000) and Germany (Eickhorst, Lamm, Borke, & Keller, 2008; Keller & Lamm, 2005).

The Economic Reform and Social Change in China

Over the past three decades, China has carried out a largescale reform toward a market economy that allows for the adoption of many aspects of capitalism, which presents one of the most dramatic economic transitions in recent history. The rapid expansion of the market systems to various sectors has led to major changes in economic and social structures in the country. There are substantial increases in individual and family income and its variation, massive movement of the population, decline in the government control of social welfare and protection, and rapid rise in unemployment rate and competition (e.g., Zhang, 2000). As reported by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (Bulletin, 2010), for example, the annual per capita income was 10,493 and 17,175 yuan (approx. US$1,312 and $2,450) for urban residents and 3,255 and 5,153 yuan (approx. US$406 and $736) for rural residents in 2005 and 2009, respectively. A major feature of the economic reform is to break the iron rice bowl in jobs with guaranteed security and steady income and benets in the traditional centrally planned command economy dominated by state-owned
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enterprises. According to Zheng and Yang (2009), private enterprises have increased in number continuously at the rate of more than 30% since 1992 and contributed to one-third of GDP and four-fth of new employment in recent years. As a result, many people choose, or are forced, to enter selfemployment or private sectors (so-called jump into the sea) where they face a higher risk in job security and greater work autonomy. The dramatic and extensive social change poses many challenges to families and individuals as they experience the unfamiliar and uncertain situations and strive to meet the demands in the new environment. In the domain of work, there is greater uncertainty in the labor market as individuals choose a better paying job with lower security or fewer benets (e.g., state to private rm) or are laid off or demoted in the position with fewer benets or lower pay. In addition to risk, the economic reform has increased the salience of competition and pressure on workers. In the traditional centrally planned economy, levels of competition between and within the workplaces were low, due to the relatively weak rewards for productivity. In contrast, private or mixed, joint enterprises are more openly competitive, especially among coworkers since job security, promotion, and benets are often directly linked to the evaluation of performance relative to others in the rm. Relatively high risk and competition in the market-oriented environment are likely to elicit or facilitate individual stress, concern, and anxiety, which may in turn lead to adjustment problems. On the other hand, the economic reform provides extraordinary opportunities for people to get rich quick, select jobs that are suitable and satisfactory to them, and experience different work climates and styles. Individuals have greater freedom in the market; they are allowed to change their jobs and rewarded for taking initiatives (Lee, 2007). Unlike traditional state enterprises that exert high control over workers, private or foreign-owned rms encourage autonomy and creativity. Advancement within a job such as pay raise and promotion is based largely on performance, rather than seniority or social-political status. Along with the social and economic changes, new technologies and individualistic values and ideologies have been introduced into China from Western countries and gradually become a part of the lifestyle of many Chinese people, especially in the younger generation (Zhang, Wang, & Fuligni, 2006). High-technology products such as cell phones/mobile device, digital camera or camcorder, electronics, computer, and Internet are now popular in cities and towns in China. In Beijing, for example, over 70% of families possess a computer, and most people report that they use Internet to obtain information, chatting, playing games, reading news, and receiving and sending emails (Computer use, 2003; Yi & Yu, 2003). Although the exposure to and use of hightechnology are a prevalent experience of adults and children in many other contemporary societies, this experience is related to the open-the-door policy that has been implemented since the beginning of the economic reform and is often considered a particularly important aspect of the social change in China. Whereas the import of Western technologies is one of the major strategies to achieve modernization and thus
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highly encouraged in the economic reform, there are mixed feelings and attitudes in China toward the introduction of Western values and ideologies such as liberty and individual freedom. The traditional Chinese society is relatively homogeneous in its cultural background, with Confucianism serving as a predominant ideological guideline for social activities (Liang, 1987). In Confucian hierarchical, holistic cultural framework, the expression of individual needs or striving for autonomous behaviors is often viewed as socially unacceptable. Behaviors that threaten the hierarchical structure of the group are strictly prohibited. Similarly, Taoism, another indigenous belief system in Chinese culture, advocates passive attitudes and behaviors in daily life activities to pursue internal harmony. It is believed that people should remain passive and take no action in dealing with challenges and adversities (Wang, 2006). The traditional Chinese beliefs and norms are clearly incompatible with the requirements of the urban marketoriented society that emphasizes individual initiative, active exploration, and competitiveness. In order to function adequately and obtain success in the new environment, individuals need to behave in an assertive manner (Chen & Chen, 2010). Thus, exploring individual experiences of new values is necessary to understand the social change in Chinese society. There are considerable regional, particularly urban-rural, differences in social and economic development in China. The massive social and economic reform such as the opening of stock markets has been occurring mainly in urban centers and cities. Families in rural China have lived mostly agricultural lives, and rural residents, accounting for approximately 53.4% of the population in the country (Bulletin, 2010), do not have as much exposure as their urban counterparts to the inuence of the dramatic social transformation (Huang & Du, 2007; Li, 2006). As a result, relative to their urban counterparts, rural people may be less likely to perceive social change including work-related risks and concerns as well as opportunities. Moreover, perhaps due to the requirements of the agricultural life, rural people may use less high-technology products such as computers. Finally, in many rural families, behavioral characteristics that are traditionally valued such as self-constraint and obedience to the authority are still highly emphasized in social interactions (e.g., Fuligni & Zhang, 2004; Li, 2006; Ming, 2008; Shi & Xu, 2008; Wang & Huang, 2007; Ying & Zhang, 1995). Rural people are more likely to endorse group orientation and are less likely to pursue individual interests than their urban counterparts (Gao, Yu, Zhang, & Sun, 2003; Wang, 2003; Zhang & Fuligni, 2006). An interesting issue concerning perceived social change is whether there exist gender differences. Traditional Chinese families are authoritarian and hierarchical, with the dominance of men (Lang, 1968). Men have the responsibility to maintain and enhance the status and reputation of the family (Ho, 1987). As a result, men are expected to be more active in various activities outside the family and to make greater effort to achieve social and economic successes than women (Chen, Kaspar, Zhang, Wang, & Zheng, 2004; Ho, 1987). If this is still the case in China today, it would be reasonable to expect that fathers are more sensitive
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to the new requirements in the society and more likely to act accordingly than mothers.

areas may use more traditional childrearing styles and practices to achieve the group- or family-oriented socialization goals. Rural parents may continue to endorse the use of directive, adult-oriented parenting strategies.

Social Change and Parental Childrearing Attitudes in Urban and Rural Contexts
Among socialization factors, developmental researchers have been interested in parental childrearing attitudes and practices in different social, economic, and cultural contexts (e.g., Chen, Liu, & Li, 2000; Keller et al., 2004; Maccoby & Martin, 1983; Nelson, Hart, Jin, Yang, & Olsen, 2006). The primary socialization goal in traditional Chinese society is to help children develop behaviors that are conducive to group well-being such as interdependence within the family and obedience to the authority (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2008). Accordingly, the main task of parents and other socialization agents is to train children to exert behavioral control and to display cooperative and compliant behaviors. To help children learn socially acceptable behaviors, maintaining adults authority is believed to be essential in childrearing (Luo, 1996). Thus, it has been argued that the traditional Chinese culture endorses the use of high-power, directive, and restrictive parenting styles (e.g., Chao, 1994; Ho, 1986). Consistently, ndings from a number of research programs indicated that compared with Western parents, Chinese parents were more controlling and power-assertive, and less affectionate to their children (e.g., Chao, 1994; Chen et al., 1998; Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987; Kelley, 1992). For example, Chinese parents were more authoritarian and less likely to use child-centered, inductive reasoning and to encourage their children to be independent and exploratory. Moreover, Chinese parents were less sensitive and more punishment-oriented in their interactions with children than Western parents (Chen et al., 1998; Wu, 1981). It may be reasonable to argue, however, that relative to rural parents, urban parents in China are less likely to maintain childrearing attitudes that are consistent with the traditional beliefs and values (e.g., Chen & Chen, 2010). In recent years, schools and organizations in urban China have been attempting to create opportunities for children and adolescents to learn assertive and autonomous skills (e.g., encouraging students to engage in public debate and to propose and implement their own plans about extracurricular activities). Parents are encouraged to expand their childrearing goals to include helping children develop social and behavioral qualities that are required for adaptation in the market-oriented society such as expression of personal opinions and self-direction (Yu, 2002). As a result, urban Chinese parents may start to appreciate the importance of childrens socioemotional well-being and the role of affective communication in parent-child interaction in promoting childrens socioemotional competence. Moreover, urban parents may realize that sensitive and inductive parenting is conducive to childrens learning of autonomous social skills whereas parental control including the use of forceful strategies may impede the development of self-condence and independence. Relative to urban parents, parents in rural
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The Present Study

The main purpose of the present study was to examine whether urban and rural parents in China differed in perceived social change and childrearing attitudes. To achieve this goal, we selected a sample of adolescents and their parents in several junior high schools located in a middle-sized city, Miyun, and surrounding rural areas in the Northern region of China. The city (the capital of the district), with a population of approximately 430,000 people, used to be a suburb of Beijing but became a part of the municipality as a result of its expansion approximately 6 years ago. The rural schools were in the countryside (largely plains and mountains). The villages and towns, each with a population of thousands of residents, are mostly 3050 km away from the city. In the present study, the parents completed a measure of perceived social change, and the adolescents completed a measure of childrearing attitudes of their parents including warmth, control, and encouragement of independence. We hypothesized that urban parents would perceive greater social change than rural parents as indicated by work-related risk and adversity, work-related opportunities, self-improvement in work, experiences of high-technology, and exposure to new values and knowledge. We also expected that urban adolescents would report higher levels of parental warmth and encouragement of independence and lower levels of parental control than their rural counterparts. We were interested in relations between parental perceived social change and childrearing attitudes. An examination of the relations might provide valuable information about the implications of social change for socialization at the individual level. Given that parents who experience more salient social change might be more likely than others to understand the importance of sensitive and inductive parenting and support for independence for childrens development of assertive and autonomous skills, we hypothesized that parental perceived social change would be positively associated with parental warmth and encouragement of independence and negatively associated with parental control and power assertion.

Method
Participants
Participants in the study consisted of 700 adolescents (357 boys and 343 girls) in city schools and 659 adolescents (353 boys and 306 girls) in rural schools in Northern China. The adolescents were in seventh and eighth grades. The mean age of the adolescents was 13 years, 7 months
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(SD = 9 months), and 13 years, 11 months (SD = 10 months) for the urban and rural groups, respectively. The adolescents in the two groups came from randomly selected junior high schools that served students in their geographic area. All students were invited to participate in the study. Written consent was obtained from all adolescents and their parents through the school. The participation rate was 95% and 97% for the urban and rural groups, respectively. In city and rural schools, students spend roughly the same amount of time in the classroom. The schedule of courses and other activities is typically identical for students in the same class. In the city and rural schools, almost all students were of Han nationality, which is the predominant ethnic group (over 90% of the population) in China. In the urban group, 37.3% of the mothers and 36% of the fathers had an educational level of high school or below high school. In the rural group, 94.4% of mothers and 95.3% of fathers had an educational level of high school or below high school. The other parents in each group had educational levels from vocational school and college to university. These demographic data were similar to those for the general urban and rural populations in China (Bulletin, 2010). The distinction between rural and urban populations in China is made legally under the system of household registration (hukou). Thus, although the information on parental occupation was not available in this study, in general, rural people are peasants engaging in farming and other agricultural activities such as growing rice, corn, and vegetables and raising some chickens and pigs, whereas urban adults are workers in various areas at different levels such as accounting clerk, health care workers, teachers, and civil ofcials (Bulletin, 2010).

Procedure and Measures

We group administered to the adolescents a self-report measure of childrearing attitudes of their parents. Parents were asked to complete a measure of perceived social change. The data were collected in 2009. The members of our research team carefully examined the items in the measures, using a variety of formal and informal strategies (e.g., repeated discussion in the research group, interviews with children and parents, psychometric analysis). The administration of all measures was carried out by a group of psychology teachers and graduate students in China. The same procedure was used in the two groups. Perceived Social Change Parents completed a measure of perceived social change, which was developed for this project based on Silbereisen et al. (2006) and Tomasik and Silbereisen (2009). The measure consisted of items assessing individual perceptions of social changes within the last 5 years in several domains that were largely related to the economic reform and the open-the-door policy. Parents were requested to rate each item on a scale ranging from 1 to 5 (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). The original measure developed by Silbereisen and his colleagues (2006) focuses on risk, stress,
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and demands from social change. The items concerning work-related risk and new values used in this study were adapted mostly from that measure. The other items were added in the study to mainly assess perceived opportunities and experiences of high-technology, which were likely to result from the social change in China. Factor analysis revealed ve factors in the measure: Work-related risk and adversity (e.g., When I review the last 5 years [this applies to all items in the measure], I have a higher risk of losing my job, It is more difcult to plan my career for a longterm, My career plans are more often disrupted by something unexpected), Work-related opportunities (e.g., There are more job opportunities for me, More opportunities for advanced training are offered to me today, The new working conditions make my work much easier now), Self-improvement in work (e.g., I must learn more advanced skills and acquire new knowledge for my work, My current work requires me to improve my abilities and knowledge, I need to work at a higher level of independence and autonomy now), Experiences of hightechnology (e.g., I use more high-tech products such as computer, laptop, etc. in my daily life, New media and communication technologies allow me to obtain more knowledge, Various media and communication technologies allow me to know more about the outside world), and New values and knowledge (e.g., My lifestyle is more inuenced by the values in outside world such as bigger cities, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, My views and values are more inuenced by foreign cultures, The knowledge and experience of my parents offer fewer clues for my life today). Internal reliabilities were .77 and .75 for workrelated risk, .67 and .66 for opportunities, .83 and .82 for self-improvement, .84 and .84 for high-tech experiences, and .64 and .65 for new values, for mothers and fathers, respectively. Adolescents Reports of Parental Childrearing Attitudes Adolescents perceptions of parental childrearing attitudes were assessed by a self-report measure, which was adapted from other measures (e.g., Block, 1981; Schaefer, 1965). The items in the original measures tap a variety of childrearing attitudes and practices. We focused in this study on parental warmth, control, and encouragement of independence, the major aspects that we believed to be relevant to perceived social change. Adolescents were asked to rate each item on a scale ranging from 1 to 5 (1 = not all at true; 5 = almost always true). Factor analysis revealed that the items in the measure were loaded on the corresponding factors: Parental warmth (e.g., My mother/father talks to me in a warm and affectionate way, Gives me comfort and understanding when I am upset or scared, Enjoys doing things with me, My mother/father and I have warm, intimate times together), Parental control and power assertion (e.g., Asks me to tell everything that happens when Im away from home, Does not allow me to question her/his decisions, Believes physical punishment is the best way of disciplining), and Encouragement
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of independence/autonomy (e.g., If I get into trouble, my mother/father expects me to handle the problem mostly by myself, Lets me make many decisions for myself, Encourage me to be independent of her/him). The measure was completed separately for father and mother. Internal reliabilities were .84 and .87 for warmth, .79 and .80 for control, and .73 and .75 for encouragement of independence, for mothers and fathers, respectively, in the present study.

There was a signicant interaction between parent and group, wilks = .97, F(5, 1351) = 3.16, p < .01, g2 = .01. Univariate analyses indicated that fathers had higher scores than mothers on high-tech experiences in the rural group, but not in the urban group, F(1, 1355) = 6.63, p < .01. No other signicant interactions were found.

Comparisons on Childrearing Variables Between Urban and Rural Groups

Results
Comparisons on Perceived Social Change Between Urban and Rural Parents
A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was conducted to examine the overall effects of urban versus rural group and the within-factor of parent (mother vs. father) and their interactions on all the perceived change variables, with parental education levels controlled as covariates. Preliminary analyses indicated no signicant effects of child gender and grade; thus these variables were not included in the nal analyses. Signicant main effects of parent and urban versus rural group were found, wilks = .99 and .96, F(5, 1351) = 2.43 and 11.04, p < .05 and .001, g2 = .01 and .04, respectively. In addition, mothers and fathers education levels had signicant main effects, wilks = .99 and .97, F(5, 1351) = 3.68 and 8.41, p < .01 and .001, g2 = .01 and .03, respectively. Follow-up univariate analyses indicated that fathers had higher scores than mothers on self-improvement in work. For group differences, urban parents had higher scores than rural parents on work-related opportunities, self-improvement in work, and high-tech experiences. Means and SDs of the variables mothers and fathers in each group are presented in Table 1. In addition, parents with higher education levels tended to have higher scores on work-related opportunities, self-improvement in work, and high-tech experiences.

A MANCOVA was conducted to examine the overall effects of urban versus rural group, child gender, and the withinfactor of parent and their interactions on all the childrearing variables, with parental education levels controlled as covariates. Signicant main effects of parent, urban versus rural group, and child gender were found, wilks = .99, .99, and .95 F(5, 1351) = 3.44, 3.15, and 25.15, p < .05, .05, and .001, g2 = .01, .01, and .05, respectively. Follow-up univariate analyses indicated that for the parent effect, mothers had higher scores than fathers on control (M = 2.65 and 2.46, SD = .90 and .93, respectively). For group differences, urban parents had lower scores on control and higher scores on encouragement of independence than rural parents. For gender differences, boys (M = 2.74 and 3.71, SD = .84 and .77) reported higher parental control and lower encouragement of independence than did girls (M = 2.36 and 3.80, SD = .76 and .74), F(1, 1353) = 72.04 and 5.24, p < .001 and .05. Means and SDs of the variables for mothers and fathers in each group are presented in Table 2.

Relations Between Perceived Social Change and Childrearing Variables

To reduce the number of variables and analyses, we conducted a higher-order factor analysis of the variables in the perceived social change measure. The results indicated that Work-related risk and adversity and New values still

Table 1. Means and SDs of perceived change variables

Urban Variables Work-related risk and adversity Work-related opportunities Self-improvement in work High-tech experiences New values Mother 2.51 (1.13) 2.49 (1.07) 3.26 (1.17) 3.65 (1.03) 2.37 (0.94) Father 2.51 (1.08) 2.65 (1.04) 3.43 (1.10) 3.67 (1.03) 2.48 (0.97) Mother 2.50 (1.17) 2.16 (1.05) 2.86 (1.23) 2.99 (1.17) 2.29 (1.00) Rural Father 2.46 (1.10) 2.24 (1.03) 3.04 (1.17) 3.16 (1.13) 2.41 (1.02) Parent 0.63 0.73 11.61*** 2.81 0.33 F value Group 0.56 15.65*** 21.83*** 55.00*** 0.37

Note. n = 700 and 659 for urban and rural groups, respectively. Standard deviations are in parentheses under M scores. ***p < .001.
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Table 2. Means and SDs of childrearing variables

Urban Variables Warmth Control Encouragement of independence Mother 3.90 (0.91) 2.59 (0.93) 3.8 (0.84) Father 3.79 (1.01) 2.39 (0.95) 3.85 (0.83) Mother 3.76 (0.90) 2.70 (0.85) 3.64 (0.83) Rural Father 3.7 (0.97) 2.53 (0.91) 3.71 (0.84) Parent 1.88 4.66* 0.91 F value Group 0.5 5.05* 4.04*

Note. Standard deviations are in parentheses under M scores. *p < .05.

Table 3. Intercorrelations among the variables

Variables 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Warmth Control .18***/.09*** Encouragement of Independence .70***/.66*** .18***/.12*** Work-related risk .04/.04 .04/.01 .01/.05* Opportunities and prospects .09***/.11*** .03/.02 .12***/.13*** .08**/.09*** New values .01/.01 .08**/.01 .01/.02 .23***/.24*** .40***/.39*** Parental education .11***/.11*** .02/.04 .11***/.11*** .03/.06* .25***/.29*** .04/.07**

Note. Correlations for mothers and fathers are before and after the slash. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

loaded on separate factors. However, Work-related opportunities, Self-improvement in work, and Experiences of hightechnology loaded on a single higher-order factor, which was labeled as Opportunities and prospects. Preliminary analyses indicated similar patterns of relations of workrelated opportunities, self-improvement in work, and experiences of high-technology with childrearing variables. Thus, in the following analyses, three variables, Work-related risk and adversity, Opportunities and prospects, and New values, were included. Intercorrelations among the variables are presented in Table 3. The magnitudes of the correlations within childrearing and perceived change domains were generally weak to moderate, suggesting that the variables tapped different, overlapping aspects in each domain. Parental education was positively associated with warmth, encouragement of independence, and perceived opportunities and prospects. A series of multiple regression analyses was conducted to examine the relations between perceived change variables and childrearing attitudes. In the analyses, adolescent gender and parental education were entered rst to control for their effects. Urban versus rural group was entered next. The three parental perceived change variables were then entered simultaneously to examine their contributions to the prediction of each childrearing variable. The interactions between group and perceived change variables were entered after the main effects to examine group differences in the relations between perceived change and childrearing variables. The variables were centered to reduce multicollinearity. The main effects of parental perceived change variables and signicant interactions are presented in Table 4.
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The results indicated that mothers and fathers perceptions of opportunities and prospects were positively associated with parental warmth and encouragement of independence across the groups. In addition, mothers perceptions of new values were positively associated with control. There were signicant interactions between group and fathers perceptions of new values in predicting control and between group and fathers perceptions of work-related risk in predicting encouragement of independence. Further analyses revealed that fathers perceptions of new values were positively associated with control and that fathers perceptions of work-related risk were negatively associated with encouragement of independence, B = .07 and .09, SE = .04 and .03, t = 2.02 and 2.75, p < .05 and .01, respectively, for the rural group; the associations were nonsignicant for the urban group. Taken together, these results suggested that parents with higher scores on perceptions of opportunities and prospects tended to be warm and supportive of independence in childrearing. Parents, particularly fathers in the rural group, who had higher scores on perceived new values were more likely to use controlling and power-assertive styles, and who reported higher work-related risk and adversity were less supportive of independence in childrearing.

Discussion
The massive social and economic transition in China has an extensive impact on individual work and life experiences. This impact is particularly salient in urban areas because
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Table 4. Effects of perceived change in predicting childrearing attitudes

Childrearing variable Perceived change variable Warmth Work-related risk Opportunities and prospects New values Control Work-related risk Opportunities and prospects New values Signicant interaction Group New values: Encouragement of Independence Work-related risk Opportunities and prospects New values Signicant interaction Group Work-related risk: B .03 .07 .03 .02 .01 .06 Mother SE .03 .03 .03 .03 .03 .03 t value 1.17 2.55** 1.02 .61 .12 2.22* B .04 .10 .03 .00 .00 .00 .13 .04 .10 .01 .12 Father SE .03 .03 .03 .03 .03 .03 .06 .02 .03 .03 .05 t value 1.51 3.40*** .96 .14 .12 .13 2.36* 1.79 3.91*** 0.48 2.48**

.01 .09 .03

.02 .03 .03

.40 3.49*** 1.08

Note. The three perceived change variables were entered simultaneously after adolescent gender and parental education. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

the major economic changes such as increased competition and autonomy have been occurring largely in cities. In contrast, rural individuals are less exposed to the dramatic social and economic changes. The results of the present study suggested that parents in urban and rural regions perceived the social change differently. Moreover, parental perceptions of social change might have a bearing on their socialization goals and attitudes.

Urban-Rural Differences in Perceived Social Change and Childrearing Attitudes

Our results rst indicated that urban parents had higher scores than rural parents on major work and life adjustment dimensions. Relative to their rural counterparts, urban parents were more likely to report increased opportunities to pursue self-interest and personal goals and to obtain selfimprovement and career advancement in workplaces. At the same time, they were more likely to experience hightechnology in daily lives. The differences between urban and rural parents in these aspects remained signicant after their educational levels were controlled. The greater opportunities perceived by urban parents seem to suggest that they in general have more positive or optimistic attitudes about their current and perhaps future work and life circumstances that are related to the social change. This argument is consistent with the nding that the urban parents did not report higher work-related risk and adversity than rural parents, although there is now increased uncertainty and competition in the urban labor market and the workplace (e.g., Lee, 2007; Zhang, 2000). The optimistic attitudes toward social change in urban Chinese parents are likely to be due to the benets that the economic reform has brought about including considerably higher income, greater freedom in
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the market, and more novel experiences produced by the new technologies in daily activities (Bulletin, 2010). These perceptions may reect the distinct nature of the social and economic transition in China considering the ndings that people often display mixed or negative reactions (e.g., stress, anxiety) to social change in some other nations such as Eastern Europe (e.g., Silbereisen, 2000). Of course, there are substantial differences among urban parents in China in their experiences. Some families, especially rural-to-urban migrant families, in the city live in relatively adverse conditions (Chen, Wang, & Wang, 2009). In addition, ination may cause concerns among some urban residents about their nancial stability. It will be important to examine withingroup variations in urban Chinese parents perceptions of and attitudes toward social change. It was found that in both urban and rural groups, fathers had higher scores than mothers on self-improvement in work. Moreover, rural fathers reported more experiences of high-technology than rural mothers. Taken together, the results seemed to suggest that the social change in China exerted a greater impact on fathers than mothers. Whether and to what extent this is related to the traditional genderstereotypical ideologies in Chinese society is an interesting question. As indicated earlier, the father is traditionally expected to take greater responsibilities than the mother to promote family status (Ho, 1987). Thus, fathers might be more sensitive and responsive than mothers to the change in the society. Obviously, this issue needs to be explored further in future research. Concerning childrearing attitudes, urban adolescents reported greater parental encouragement of independence and lower parental control than rural adolescents. These results were consistent with our hypotheses, suggesting that parents in urban China are more likely to value childrens autonomous and self-directive behaviors and less likely to endorse the use of controlling and power-assertive parenting
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in childrearing. Urban parents may realize that it is important for their children to learn independent and initiative-taking skills in order to explore in the challenging environment and that controlling and restrictive parenting styles may not be conducive to the development of these skills. Relative to urban parents, rural parents may endorse more traditional childrearing attitudes including high control to maintain adult authority and to achieve the group-oriented socialization goals. Consistently, rural parents may be less likely to encourage their children to express their opinions and exhibit independence in family and other social settings. There were gender and mother-father differences in parental childrearing attitudes. First, boys reported higher parental control and lower parental encouragement of independence than girls. Similar results were found in previous studies (e.g., Chen et al., 2000). The gender differences in parental control might be related to Chinese traditional expectations of males to obtain greater achievement. It is also possible that because girls often display less behavioral and learning problems than did boys (e.g., Chen, Rubin, & Li, 1995), parents believe that it is less necessary to exert control on girls. In contrast, girls tend to be less independent and assertive because they are traditionally expected and socialized to be passive, cautious, and wary in social situations (e.g., Chen & He, 2004; Chen et al., 1995; StevensonHinde & Hinde, 1986). Thus, parents may make greater effort to help girls to develop social skills such as independence and initiative-taking so that they can achieve success in school performance and future workplaces. The motherfather differences in childrearing attitudes are rather interesting. Mothers had higher scores on control than fathers, which appears to be inconsistent with the argument that fathers, as the authority gure in the Chinese family, often assume the primary responsibility in governing (e.g., teaching, disciplining) children (Ho, 1987). In Chen et al. (2000) study, mothers were also found to be higher on control than fathers for girls. A possible explanation is that parental control may reect or overlap with, to some extent, parental involvement in childrearing. If this is the case, it may be understandable that mothers are more likely to provide monitoring and control because they spend more time in routine activities such as supervision of childrens homework (Chen et al., 2000; Parke & Buriel, 2006). It may be useful in the future to include general parental involvement in the study and examine the unique aspect of parental control beyond involvement.

independence across the urban and rural groups. Thus, parents who perceived more challenges and opportunities to pursue self-advancement and personal career goals and to obtain new life experiences were more likely to support the use of affectionate and sensitive parenting practices in childrearing and encourage their children to develop assertive and autonomous behaviors. The beliefs that there were increased job opportunities and, at the same time, high levels of competition might serve to motivate parents to help their children learn social skills such as self-condence, selfexpression, and creativity through intimate parent-child interactions and affective communications. Moreover, parental experiences of working in places that require advanced knowledge and skills might be a useful resource for them to guide their children in learning independent and exploratory behaviors. An interesting nding of the study was that reports of new values, especially among rural parents, were positively associated with parental control. As indicated earlier, traditional Chinese collectivistic values emphasize group harmony and self-constraint, which are incompatible with new values of self-expression, exploration, and pursuit of individual interests. Most of the new values have been introduced into China from Western countries, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Although these values may be helpful for individual adjustment in the market-oriented society, many people including educators and parents are concerned whether they lead to negative behaviors such as selshness or self-centeredness, demanding of immediate material satisfaction, and lack of cooperation in children. As a result, parents who perceive the threat of new values may feel that they need to exert control on their children. Finally, risk and adversity perceived by rural fathers were negatively associated with their encouragement of independence in childrearing. The results suggested that rural fathers who perceived greater risk and adversity due to social change were less likely to encourage their children to develop independent behaviors. The generally stable work and life of rural fathers might make them particularly anxious and concerned about the risk and adverse consequences of social change. As a result, these fathers may be reluctant to encourage their children to take risk and display independent and exploratory behaviors.

Conclusions, Limitations, and Future Directions

The present study revealed signicant differences between urban and rural parents on major dimensions of perceived social change and childrearing attitudes. Moreover, parental perceived social change, particularly perceived opportunities and prospects, was associated with parental childrearing attitudes such as warmth and encouragement of independence. There were several limitations and weaknesses in the study. First, the data concerning parental perceived social change and childrearing attitudes were correlational and cross-sectional, thereby precluding any conclusions about
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Relations Between Perceived Social Change and Childrearing Attitudes

A major focus of the present study was on relations between parental perceived change and childrearing attitudes. Relative to the other two aspects of perceived change, parental perceived opportunities and prospects appeared to be associated with childrearing attitudes most robustly and consistently. The results indicated that opportunities and prospects reported by both mothers and fathers were positively associated with their warmth and encouragement of
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causality. Although it seems to make sense conceptually to argue that perceived social change affects childrearing attitudes, the causal direction needs to be examined carefully in the future, perhaps with longitudinal data. Second, the present study focused on parental perceived changes, childrearing attitudes, and their relations. Perceived change and childrearing attitudes are likely to be affected by other family factors such as family social support systems. It will be interesting to investigate how these factors are associated with each of the variables and moderate their relations. Third, we assessed parental perceived social change, which might serve as a linkage between macro-level context (e.g., policy, social institutions, cultural conventions and practices) and individual lifestyles and socioemotional experiences (Tomasik & Silbereisen, 2009). Our results indicated that the assessment provided meaningful and useful information for us to understand differences between urban and rural parents and the associations between parental perceptions of change and childrearing attitudes. Nevertheless, perceived social change taps only one aspect of the broad construct of social change. Continuous research using a multi-disciplinary and multi-method approach is necessary in order to achieve an in-depth understanding of the multi-level processes of social change and its comprehensive impact on individual functioning. Fourth, we did not include child outcomes in this study. It will be important in the future to explore how parental perceived social change contributes to childrens social and cognitive functions, perhaps through the mediation of childrearing attitudes and practices. Finally, as indicated by Kagitcibasi and Ataca (2005), the world is fast becoming more urbanized, and with global urbanization, research on parents and childrens behaviors and lifestyles in changing circumstances is increasingly important in the developmental science. Yet, social change may affect individual experiences in different manners across societies given their specic traditions and conditions. Thus, it will be necessary to investigate social change and its effects on families in other societies with their social and historical conditions taken into account. Despite the limitations, as the rst attempt to explore perceived social change and childrearing among Chinese parents and adolescents with different backgrounds, the present study constituted a signicant contribution to our understanding of the role of context in human functioning in the contemporary Chinese society. Acknowledgments The research described herein was supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We are grateful to the adolescents and their parents for their participation.

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Received May 19, 2010 Accepted July 12, 2010

About the authors Xinyin Chen is Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Association for Psychological Science (APS). His research interest is mainly in childrens and adolescents socioemotional functioning, parenting, and social relationships from a cultural-contextual perspective. Yufang Bian is Professor in the State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and Director of the Center for Experimental Psychology and Evaluation at Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. Her main interests are in psychological measurement and evaluation and childrens school adaptation.
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Tao Xin is Professor of Statistics and Measurement at Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. He also serves as a Director of the Institute of Educational Statistics and Measurement at Beijing Normal University. His research interests include cognitive diagnostic theory, multidimensional IRT, categorical data analysis, and the impact of schooling on childrens academic achievement. Li Wang is Associate Professor at Peking University, Beijing, China. Her research interest is in childrens emotion regulation and social adjustment from a cross-cultural perspective. Rainer K. Silbereisen is Professor and Chair of the Department of Developmental Psychology at the University of Jena, Germany, and Director of the Center for Applied Developmental Science. He is also Adjunct Professor for Human Development at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.

His research agenda concerns life-span development across societies and cultures.

Xinyin Chen Applied Psychology Human Development Division Graduate School of Education University of Pennsylvania 3700 Walnut St. Philadelphia, PA 19104-6216 USA Tel. +1 215 898-4176 E-mail xinyin@gse.upenn.edu

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