IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v131y2021ics0190740921003601.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Chinese mother’s scaffolding of young children’s responses to stress and children’s depressive symptoms during the first year of primary school

Author

Listed:
  • Power, Thomas G.
  • Wong, Mun

Abstract

The transition to primary school in Hong Kong is stressful for young children primarily due to increases in pressure for academic performance from teachers and parents. Researchers suggest that these pressures might account for the higher level of depressive symptoms seen in children from China and other Eastern countries than in Western settings. The current study examined whether maternal strategies for helping children cope with the stresses of this transition predicted depressive symptoms over the first year of primary school. One hundred and three first year primary school children in Hong Kong were interviewed about their depressive symptoms at the end of the second month and during the last month of their first year in primary school. One hundred mothers completed questionnaires about how they scaffolded their children’s responses to stress at the same time points. Principal components analysis identified three types of maternal strategies: positive scaffolding (helping children understand the situation, process their emotions, and problem-solve solutions, along with creating positive expectations for the future); dismiss/blame (downplaying the serious of problems or blaming the situation on the child or others); and encouraging avoidance (distraction and encouraging avoidance). At the lower SES school, there was a significant negative bidirectional relationship between positive scaffolding and depressive symptoms; at the higher SES school, dismiss/blame at Time 1 positively predicted depressive symptoms at Time 2 and depressive symptoms at Time 1 positively predicted positive scaffolding at Time 2. Results inform parents about childhood stress during the transition to primary school and teach parents effective ways to help their children cope with these stresses including helping them process their feelings, analyze the situation, problem-solve solutions, and develop positive expectancies about the future. These results can inform parenting education programs targeting children’s depressive symptoms and parents’ scaffolding skills.

Suggested Citation

  • Power, Thomas G. & Wong, Mun, 2021. "Chinese mother’s scaffolding of young children’s responses to stress and children’s depressive symptoms during the first year of primary school," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:131:y:2021:i:c:s0190740921003601
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106284
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740921003601
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106284?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liu, Qianqian & Zhou, Nan & Cao, Hongjian & Hong, Xiumin, 2020. "Family socioeconomic status and Chinese young children’ social competence: Parenting processes as mediators and contextualizing factors as moderators," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    2. Sun, Ping & Unger, Jennifer B. & Palmer, Paula & Ma, Huiyan & Xie, Bin & Sussman, Steve & Johnson, C. Anderson, 2012. "Relative income inequality and selected health outcomes in urban Chinese youth," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 84-91.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bijou, Christina & Colen, Cynthia G, 2022. "Shades of health: Skin color, ethnicity, and mental health among Black Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    2. Jie Ji & Xiaoyue Sun & Zhiwen Zhang & Yingyan Cai, 2023. "Socioeconomic Status and Child Quality of Life: The Mediating Roles of Parenting Practices," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(3), pages 1073-1095, June.
    3. Kuo, Chun-Tung & Chiang, Tung-liang, 2013. "The association between relative deprivation and self-rated health, depressive symptoms, and smoking behavior in Taiwan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 39-44.
    4. Graham, Carol & Zhou, Shaojie & Zhang, Junyi, 2017. "Happiness and Health in China: The Paradox of Progress," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 231-244.
    5. Yaron Zelekha & Orly Zelekha, 2020. "Income and clinical depression versus non-clinical mental health: Same associations or different structures? A dissociation strategy using a national representative random survey based on EUROHIS (INH," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-18, June.
    6. Jiwei Chen, 2021. "Do minimum wage increases benefit worker health? Evidence from China," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 473-499, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:131:y:2021:i:c:s0190740921003601. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.