'Tiger moms' vs. Western-style mothers? Stanford researchers find different just equally effective styles

Stanford research shows that Asian American children are motivated by their high-pressure mothers considering those mothers often piece of work alongside them – and the "selves overlap." Both Asian American and European American students evaluated their mothers positively and felt supported by them.

Past Clifton B. Parker

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Stanford research shows the European American style of parenting works, but and then does the vastly different Asian American arroyo.

Even if Asian and Western parenting styles differ radically, they correspond two paths to the same destination, according to new Stanford research.

In 2011, Yale law Professor Amy Chua provoked a cultural clash with a Wall Street Journal commodity, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," that advocated a strict arroyo – "tiger parenting" – common in East Asia. The article suggested Western-style parenting was as well permissive.

In the backlash to the article, critics accused Chua of over-controlling her children in her quest to make them succeed.

Merely every bit Stanford researchers Alyssa Fu and Hazel Markus suggest in a new study, both culture-centric approaches tin can be effective. Motivation, the researchers wrote, is understood to come from within an individual in Western families, while Asian children discover forcefulness in parental expectations. The lesser line is that children can exist motivated either manner.

"These findings underscore the importance of understanding cultural variation in how people construe themselves and their relationships to others. While European American parents give their children wings to wing on their own, Asian American parents provide a constant air current beneath their children's wings," wrote Fu, a doctoral student in psychology and the pb author of the written report, and Markus, a professor of psychology.

On May 24, Fu is presenting the research at the almanac convention for the Association for Psychological Science in San Francisco.

Nearly the research, Fu noted, "Nosotros were interested in finding out how interdependence could be a motivating factor. The idea was to compare the Asian American cultural context to the European American one."

In the Asian American family unit model, the authors propose, children learn the value of being interdependent with i's shut others, especially one's mother. In contrast, European American families tend to emphasize that the person is and should exist independent, fifty-fifty from i's female parent. The focus is on developing self-esteem and cocky-efficacy in the kid.

'Describe your mother'

In 4 carve up studies involving 342 students from a Northern California loftier school, Fu and Markus examined "underlying models of cocky" and sources of parental motivation and pressure. The students were asked for open-ended descriptions of their mothers –"draw your mother in a couple of sentences." They also answered questions about how continued they felt with their moms every bit well equally how much pressure they received.

For example, they asked students to directly rate how much pressure they experience from their mothers. Then, to assess whether students perceive this pressure past mothers equally negative, the researchers asked participants to charge per unit how much they feel supported by their mothers. And they examined the correlation between students' perception of maternal pressure and feelings of maternal back up.

In two of the experiments, they examined how Asian American and European American students thought most their moms after they experienced failure in a word puzzle task that required them to think about themselves and others who are close to them.

The inquiry findings propose that Asian Americans and European Americans truly see moms differently.

For example, Asian American high schoolers were more likely to talk near their relationships with their mothers than were European Americans. Asian Americans more than often noted that their moms helped them with homework or pushed them to succeed.

On the other mitt, European American students were more than apt to talk virtually their mothers as separate individuals – describing their appearance or their hobbies, for example.

Asian American students experienced more interdependence with their mothers and pressure level from them. But the pressure does non strain their relationships with their mothers equally much as it does with European Americans, according to the report.

"Following failure, Asian American students compared with European American ones are more motivated by their mothers, and are specially motivated past pressure level from their mothers when it conveys interdependence," or the feeling that mom is on their side in challenging times.

On the other hand, Fu explained, when European Americans experience failure, "It tin can cut you to the eye. And so, it'south upward to you to pick yourself upwards by the bootstraps and move on."

Sources of motivation

In Asian American families, mothers are more often physically almost their children, reminding them to do their homework – and the children find energy in their mother's pressure. Thus, at the point of failure, when they were prompted to remember of their mothers, they bounced dorsum quicker than European Americans.

Asian American mothers and children akin see it every bit the mother's duty to help their children to succeed, even if that means pushing them to practice what they exercise non desire to exercise. "The interdependent relationship betwixt mothers and their children is what allows pressure level from mothers to be motivating," Fu said.

I defining trait of "Tiger Moms," Fu said, is that they do not simply give orders to their kids without getting involved. "Tiger Moms throw themselves into everything that their children are doing," she said. "And when Asian American kids come across themselves as really connected with their mothers, they tin benefit from their mother's pressure level."

The researchers institute that how interdependent Asian Americans experience with their mothers – "how much they feel similar their selves overlap," every bit Fu put it – predicts their persistence.

"In other words, they work harder the more interdependent they feel with their mothers, only only when they are reminded of their mothers' interdependence with them," she said.

'At-home the clash'

When it comes to motivating a child who is struggling in school or outside of it, Fu and Markus found merit in both approaches.

"The results of these studies can at-home the disharmonism over the role of parental involvement in bookish achievement. They bear witness that Chua and her critics can both be right," they wrote.

Equally for future enquiry possibilities, Fu said she wants to explore how interdependence can be stronger and more than effective in the European American context. The ii cultures can acquire from each other, she added.

"A sense of cocky as independent and a sense of self as interdependent can both be useful in motivating students and encouraging them to persist. These are psychological tools that people can utilise to grow and achieve success," Fu said.

Editor'south Note

This updates an earlier version.

Media Contact

Alyssa Fu, Psychology: (650) 725-4604, fua@stanford.edu

Hazel Markus, Psychology: (650) 725-2449, hmarkus@stanford.edu

Clifton B. Parker, Stanford News Service: (650) 725-0224, cbparker@stanford.edu