Duane Rudy

Korean American parents express warmth indirectly (e.g., through devoted attention), which can be contrasted with explicit expressions of warmth (e.g., stating love, hugging). This study investigated three distinct forms of indirect warmth. Thoughtfulness involves parents anticipating and meeting children's needs before they are expressed. Devotion to education concerns prioritizing a supportive learning environment over parental interests. Guan behavior involves communicating clear standards to children, in a manner sensitive to their abilities. The present longitudinal study examined, in a path analysis, whether Time 1 (T1) Korean American adolescents' perceptions of the three separate forms of indirect warmth were positively predicted by T1 maternal reports of supportiveness and demandingness or guan ideolog y. Guan ideology predicted devotion, β = 0.08, p = 0.048, as well as guan behavior, β = 0.11, p = 0.008. Supportiveness predicted thoughtfulness, β = 0.11, p = 0.005. The study also examined whether the T1 variables predicted T2 adolescent outcomes. T1 thoughtfulness predicted T2 prosocial behavior, β = 0.15, p = 0.007, and relationship quality, β = 0.05, p = 0.001. T2 GPA was predicted by T1 supportiveness, β = 0.12, p = 0.048, and devotion, β = 0.18, p = 0.014. There was evidence for full mediation from supportiveness via thoughtfulness for relationship quality, β = 0.02, p = 0.029, and prosocial behavior β = 0.02, p = 0.052. Because supportiveness had its influence on the latter two variables via thoughtfulness, those who work with Korean American families may want to consider addressing thoughtfulness directly.

We examined the longitudinal associations between stressful family life events at 4 years of age and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors at 7 years of age, whether family functioning and parental warmth (i.e., mothers' warmth, fathers' warmth) mediated those associations, and whether the associations varied by fathers' involvement in Korean families. Participants were 1,703 families, including mothers (Mage = 34 years; SD = 3.70 years), fathers (Mage = 37 years; SD = 3.97 years), and children (Mage = 51 months; SD = 1.22 months) from the Panel Study on Korean Children. Results revealed that stressful family life events were positively associated with children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors but not via family functioning and parental warmth. Family functioning and mothers' warmth successively mediated the association between father involvement and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Father involvement moderated the association between stressful family life events and children's externalizing behaviors. The findings highlight that father involvement may play a protective role in children's externalizing behaviors when Korean families experience stressful situations.

The present study sought to examine longitudinal associations among delinquency, children's disclosure to parents, parent‐child relationship quality, and parental knowledge in a South Korean sample. Longitudinal research shows that in Western samples, delinquency is negatively associated with the latter three variables. We also sought to test whether the associations varied across gender. We found little evidence of significant reciprocal relationships among the variables and no differences in associations across gender. A second analysis revealed that adolescents’ involvement with delinquent peers was a good predictor of subsequent delinquency for males and females. Implications of the findings for future research and practice are discussed.

This study examined whether ethnicity moderated trajectories of mothers’ and children’s positive and negative emotional expressions, as well as within‐time and lagged associations between these variables. European American and Mexican American mothers’ and children’s emotional expressions toward each other were observed when children were aged 15, 25, and 37 months. Children’s positivity increased at identical rates and maternal positivity predicted subsequent levels of children’s positivity similarly in the two groups. However, Mexican American children’s negative expressivity declined at more pronounced rates than European American children. Also, whereas at 27 months, European American children’s negativity was negatively predicted by previous levels of maternal positivity, at 37 months it was predicted by previous levels of maternal negativity. Mexican American mothers’ emotional expressivity did not predict their children’s negativity. Finally, maternal negativity declined over time only among Mexican Americans. The results are interpreted with reference to ecocultural theory, the Mexican values of simpatía and respeto, the European American value of authenticity, and the fact that cultural differences become more pronounced as children age.

This longitudinal study examined spillover effects of marital conflict on subsequent parenting and preschoolers’ outcomes in South Korea. Data came from the Panel Study on Korean Children. Participants were 1,826 South Korean fathers, mothers, and their preschool children (M age = 3 years at Time 1; 51.5% boys). Path analysis was conducted to examine longitudinal relationships among marital conflict, fathers’ and mothers’ parenting behaviors (i.e., warmth and strict control), and preschool children’s emotional maladjustment and peer relationships. Marital conflict when children were age 3 predicted lower levels of warmth for mothers and fathers, but not levels of strict control, when children were age 4. Maternal reports of lower warmth and higher strict control when children were age 4 predicted preschoolers’ later emotional maladjustment, but not peer relationships at age 5. Paternal reports of warmth and control at age 4 predicted preschoolers’ subsequent peer relationships, but not their emotional problems at age 5. Direct effects of marital conflict at age 3 on children’s outcomes at age 5 were also found. The model fits equally well for boys and girls. The study suggests that different socialization processes may have been affected for mothers and fathers by marital conflict, which in turn selectively affected different outcomes in children.

This study examined whether culture moderated the associations between Chinese and European American undergraduates’ perceptions of parental warmth and negativity, and how these perceptions predicted undergraduates’ levels of self-esteem and subsequent life satisfaction. Participants consisted of 207 undergraduates (95 female, 112 male) from Wuhu, Anhui, China, and 129 (75 female, 54 male) European American undergraduates from Columbia, Missouri, the United States. Path analyses were conducted to examine the mediating role of self-esteem in the associations between parental warmth and negativity and young adults’ life satisfaction. Maternal warmth and negativity were more strongly negatively associated in the European American group than in the Chinese group; moreover, both warmth and negativity predicted self-esteem in the Chinese group, but only negativity predicted self-esteem in the European American group. Self-esteem significantly predicted life satisfaction in both groups, but the association was significantly stronger in the European American group. The results suggest cultural differences in the links between parental warmth and negativity, self-esteem, and subsequent life satisfaction. Therefore, it is important to consider parental warmth and negativity as separate constructs, because their associations with each other and with children’s levels of adjustment may vary across cultures.

In previous research, Asian Americans had higher levels of intrinsic motivation than European Americans when their mothers made choices for them. However, European Americans had higher levels of intrinsic motivation than Asian Americans when they made choices for themselves. We attempted to explain this effect by examining cultural differences in social perceptions of the choice situation in two studies. Study 1 found that feelings of closeness with parents and beliefs about who has better long-term foresight mediated the predicted group differences in intrinsic motivation in a parent-choice condition when comparing Indian and Chinese undergraduates with European American undergraduates. However, perceptions of how acceptable it is for the decision maker to make the choice mediated group differences in intrinsic motivation in a personal-choice condition. Although there were some exceptions, Study 2 generally replicated these findings in a comparison of Indian and European American undergraduates, and showed that cultural differences in beliefs about how accurately the decision maker knows and takes into account the participants’ immediate preferences played an additional mediating role in the personal-choice condition, as did personal foresight. These studies suggest that cultural differences in how children construe decision making affect the relationship of such decision making to resultant intrinsic motivation.

In this study, we examined whether culture moderates the correlates of psychological control as a function of the type of measure used. We administered two measures of parental psychological control to university undergraduates from India ( n = 166) and the United States ( n = 177), as well as a measure of participants’ self-esteem. One measure assessed harsh psychologically controlling tactics; the other relationship-oriented guilt induction. We argued that while relationship-oriented guilt induction might be deemed inappropriate in the United States, Indian parents might more frequently use this technique to promote familial interdependence, a culturally specific value. Harsh psychological control, on the other hand, is unlikely to be used for benign purposes in either group. We had the following hypotheses: (a) across groups, harsh psychological control would be more strongly associated than relationship-oriented guilt induction with lower levels of reported self-esteem; (b) reports of relationship-oriented guilt induction and harsh psychological control would be more strongly associated in the United States than in India; (c) reports of relationship-oriented parental guilt induction would be more strongly associated with lower levels of self-esteem in the United States than in India; and (d) the negative associations between relationship-oriented guilt induction and self-esteem for students from the United States would become non-significant when controlling for harsh parental psychological control. Support was found for all hypotheses. Unexpectedly, in the Indian group, relationship-oriented guilt induction was positively associated with self-esteem. The implications for the measurement of psychological control are discussed.