RESEARCH ABSTRACT

A Comparison of Fathers’ and Mothers’ Contributions in the Prediction of Academic Performance of School-Age Children in Hong Kong

Vicky C. W. Tam

Introduction

Traditionally, research focuses on mothers exclusively or subsumes mothers and fathers into a single group without paying attention to sex differences in parenting. Previous research on parent–child interaction has revealed that fathers tend to be stricter, less affectionate, and more directive with boys than with girls, whereas few differences related to the child’s sex were reported with mothers. Given that parents may differently affect the developmental outcomes of boys and girls, it would be fruitful to adopt a gender-balanced research approach that includes fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters.

Traditionally, Chinese culture has regarded fathers as strict disciplinarians and mothers as nurturing caregivers. Parents generally preferred sons over daughters, and boys were subject to harsher discipline as higher aspirations were held for them. Given changing gender roles in the family in the larger context of modernisation, it is of interest to see whether the traditional gender pattern of parental roles and differential treatment of children continues to prevail.

Objectives of Study

The objectives of this exploratory study are two-fold. First, it aims to examine sex differences in parenting attributes across fathers and mothers and towards their sons and daughters. Second, this study strives to compare the contributions of fathers and mothers to boys’ and girls’ academic performance.

Four parental attributes, namely nurturance, psychological control, parental involvement, and parental academic efficacy, are examined among 461 Chinese father–mother–child triads of children studying Grade 3 to 5 in Hong Kong.

Methodology

Data were collected by administering questionnaires to students in the school and to parents at home. The sample comprised 208 boys and 253 girls and their parents.

Sex Differences in Parenting

Sex differences in parenting reported in this study conform to cultural expectations of parental roles. Chinese mothers in Hong Kong were more nurturing towards their school-age children, more likely to involve themselves in their children’s education and felt more efficacious in promoting intellectual development than were fathers.

However, mothers in this study did not differ from fathers in the level of psychological control exerted on children. It appears that pre- and early adolescents have yet to experience the kind of identity and autonomy issues that are prominent in adolescence and that render parental psychological control a concern, and hence they do not experience their fathers’ and mothers’ control differently.

Furthermore, this study shows that sons on the whole experienced less favourable parent–child interaction than daughters did. Compared to girls, boys perceived their parents to be less nurturing and to exert higher psychological control on them. Their parents also had lower involvement in education and felt less efficacious to the sons in promoting academic development. Such results indicate a continuation of the Chinese cultural pattern of harsher parental treatment toward sons, which may jeopardize their psychosocial development.

Gender-moderated Parental Contributions to Academic Performance

This study demonstrated that the gender of both the parent and child has an influence on how parental attributes affect academic performance, with respect to the specific parental attributes of parental efficacy and psychological control. Parental efficacy is defined as parents’ perceptions of their own competency in helping children to cope with school work. Psychological control refers to parental behaviours that are intrusive and exert control over children’s thoughts, feelings, and attachment.

In this study, boys benefited more from maternal efficacy than girls did and they were also more hampered by mothers with high psychological control, while girls’ academic performance was more enhanced by paternal academic efficacy than was boys’.

The explanation for such findings should be situated in Hong Kong’s socio-cultural context. Mothers in Hong Kong are often heavily involved in supervising children’s schoolwork and other socialisation tasks. Their positive beliefs in their capacity to promote intellectual achievement thus have the potential to promote the school achievement of their children. Yet, mothers’ sense of competency benefits boys more than girls because Chinese parents hold higher aspirations towards their sons’ education and they value their sons’ achievement more.

In Chinese families, psychological control is considered an essential component in socializing children, and previous studies showed that boys in general were subject to higher parental psychological control than girls and that mothers in Hong Kong were more controlling than fathers. As such, the potentially damaging effect of a mother’s psychological control is more severe on boys than on girls.

The explanation of fathers’ differential influence on academic performance is more complex and draws upon the position that fathers play a crucial role in promoting gender-typed behaviour in children. In the context of academic performance, fathers with gender-stereotyped attitudes are likely to discourage their daughters from putting effort into schoolwork. Those who feel competent in supervising their daughters’ schoolwork deviate from gender typing by emphasizing education for girls. As a result, this unconventional role expectation facilitates the intellectual development of girls. As other research shows, parental attitudes about gender roles may explain gender differences in parental behaviours that affect child outcomes. Future research on gender effects should thus include gender role attitudes in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying processes that foster gendered family dynamics.

Conclusion

Findings of this study showed that parental roles have not evolved significantly from traditional Chinese cultural norms. Results also demonstrated that the gender of both parent and child moderates the relationship between parenting attributes and child academic performance. A gender-balanced approach that highlights the significance of gender dynamics in understanding parental effects on child development is thus needed.

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