Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T01:55:22.950Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Culture, Family Contexts, and Children's Coping Strategies in Peer Interactions

from Part III - Peers and Parents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2009

By
Yiyuan Xu ,
Jo Ann M. Farver ,
Lei Chang ,
Lidong Yu  and
Zengxiu Zhang
Edited by
Xinyin Chen ,
Doran C. French  and
Barry H. Schneider
Yiyuan Xu
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Jo Ann M. Farver
Affiliation:
University of Southern California Los Angeles, California, USA
Lei Chang
Affiliation:
The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, P.R. China
Lidong Yu
Affiliation:
Jiangsu University of Science Technology Zhenjiang, P.R. China
Zengxiu Zhang
Affiliation:
East China Normal University Shanghai, P.R. China
Xinyin Chen
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
Doran C. French
Affiliation:
Illinois Wesleyan University
Barry H. Schneider
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
Get access

Summary

In most cultures, the family setting provides children with an initial set of experiences that will allow them to become productive adults, express their individual differences, form and maintain social contacts with others, and learn how to cope with daily hassles and major life stressors. Predominant beliefs or “parental ethnotheories” (Harkness & Super, 1996) about what is desired and appropriate child behavior guide parents' particular approaches to socialization. Therefore, regularities within settings, customs, and parents' belief systems organize children's developmental experiences and provide the information from which children construct the rules of their culture (Super & Harkness, 1986; Whiting, 1980). Depending on the cultural context, socialization involves activities in which children are steered away from certain behaviors and are strongly encouraged to engage in others. When upset with their peers, children may yell, hit someone, cry, seek help from others, or keep their feelings to themselves. Over time and with experience, children learn to cope with peer conflict using strategies that are normative within their peer group and adaptive to the goals and beliefs of their cultural community.

At present, we know very little about sociocultural settings in which children encounter stress and develop specific coping strategies. In this chapter, we draw on data from our ongoing studies of Chinese children's socioemotional functioning with their peers to begin to address this gap in the research literature.

Type
Chapter
Information
Peer Relationships in Cultural Context , pp. 264 - 280
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Azuma, H. (1984). Secondary control as a heterogeneous category. American Psychologist, 9, 970–971.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Band, E., & Weisz, J. (1988). How to feel better when it feels bad: Children's perspectives on coping with everyday stress. Developmental Psychology, 24, 247–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berg, C. A., Meegan, S. P., & Deviney, F. P. (1998). A social-contextual model of coping with everyday problems across the lifespan. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 22, 239–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowker, A., Bukowski, W. M., Hymel, S., & Sippola, L. K. (2000). Coping with daily hassles in the peer group during early adolescence: Variations as a function of peer experience. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 10, 211–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burt, C. E., Cohen, L. H., & Bjorck, J. P. (1988). Perceived family environment as a moderator of young adolescents' life stress adjustment. American Journal of Community Psychology, 16, 101–122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Capaldi, D. M., & Rothbart, M. K. (1992). Development and validation of an early adolescent temperament measure. Journal of Early Adolescence, 12, 153–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, L. (2003). Variable effects of children's aggression, social withdrawal, and prosocial leadership as functions of teacher beliefs and behaviors. Child Development, 74, 535–548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chang, L. (2004). The role of classroom norms in contextualizing the relations of children's social behaviors to peer acceptance. Developmental Psychology, 40, 691–702.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chang, L., Liu, H.Wen, Z., Fung, K. Y., Wang, Y., & Xu, Y. (2004). Mediating teacher liking and moderating authoritative teaching on Chinese adolescents' perceptions of antisocial and prosocial behaviors. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 369–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, L., Schwartz, D., Dodge, K. A., & McBride-Chang, C. (2003). Harsh parenting in relation to child emotion regulation and aggression. Journal of Family Psychology, 17, 598–606.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, X. (2000). Social and emotional development in Chinese children and adolescents: A contextual cross-cultural perspective. In Columbus, F. (Ed.), Advances in psychology research (Vol. 1, pp. 229–251). Huntington, NY: Nova Science.Google Scholar
Chen, X., Chang, L., & He, Y. (2003). The peer groups as a context: Mediating and moderating effects on relations between academic achievement and social functioning in Chinese children. Child Development, 74, 710–727.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Compas, B. E. (1987). Coping with stress during childhood and adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 393–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Compas, B. E. (1998). An agenda for coping research and theory: Basic and applied developmental issues. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 22, 231–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compas, B. E., Connor-Smith, J. K., Salzman, H., Thomsen, A. H., & Wadworth, M. E. (2001). Coping with stress during childhood and adolescence: Problems, progress, and potential in theory and research. Psychology Bulletin, 127, 87–127.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisenberg, N., Shepard, S. A., Fabes, R. A., Murphy, B. C., & Guthrie, I. K. (1998). Shyness and children's emotionality, regulation, and coping: Contemporaneous, longitudinal, and across-context relations. Child Development, 69, 767–790.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellis, L., & Rothbart, M. (2001, April). Revision of the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.
Hanson, C. L., Cigrang, J. A., Harris, M. A., Carle, D. L., Relyea, G., & Burghen, G. A. (1989). Coping styles in youths with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57, 644–651.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harkness, S., & Super, C. M. (1996). Parents' cultural belief systems. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Hoelter, J., & Harper, L. (1987). Structural and interpersonal family influences on adolescent self-conception. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 46, 129–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, L. (2002). “Ren” or not “ren”? Between the critique of modernity and indigenous notion of “ren.” In Yeh, C. (Ed.), From modernity to indigenization (pp. 111–135). Taiwan, Taipe: Yuanliu.Google Scholar
Kim, B. S. K., Atkinson, D. R., & Yang, P. H. (1999). The Asian Values Scale: Development, factor analysis, validation, and reliability. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 46, 342–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kliewer, W., & Lewis, H. (1995). Family influences on coping processes in children and adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 20, 511–525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kochanska, G., Murray, K. T., & Harlan, E. T. (2000). Effortful control in early childhood: Continuity and change, antecedents, and implications for social development. Developmental Psychology, 36, 220–232.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarty, C. A., Weisz, J. R., Wanitromanee, K., Eastman, K. L., Suwanlert, S., Chaiyasit, W.. (1999). Culture, coping, and context: Primary, secondary control among Thai and American Youth. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 40, 809–818.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morling, B., & Fiske, S. (1999). Defining and measuring harmony control. Journal of Research in Personality, 33, 379–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morling, B., Kitayama, S., & Miyamoto, Y. (2002). Cultural practices emphasize influence in the United States and adjustment in Japan. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 311–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munro, D. J. (1985). Individualism and holism: Studies in Confucian and Taoist values. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Nisbett, R. E. (2003). The geography of thought: How Asians and Westerners think differently … and why. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Olson, D. H., Sprenkle, D. H., & Russell, C. S. (1979). Circumplex model of marital and family systems, I: Cohesion and adaptability dimensions, family types, and clinical applications. Family Process, 18, 3–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parke, R. D., & Ladd, G. W. (1992). Family-peer relationships: Modes of linkage. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Reed, M. A., Pien, D. P., & Rothbart, M. K. (1984). Inhibitory self-control in preschool children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 30, 131–147.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, B. G., & Jing, Q. (1996). A revolution in family life: The political and social structural impact of China's one child policy. Journal of Social Issues, 52, 51–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (1998). Temperament. In Damon, W., & Eisenberg, N. (Eds). Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed, pp. 105–176). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Rothbaum, F., Weisz, J. R., & Snyder, S. S. (1982). Changing the world and changing the self: A two-process model of perceived control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 5–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, A. S. (1985). Cultural factors in casework with Chinese-Americans. Social Casework, 66, 333–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sastry, J., & Ross, C. E. (1998). Asian ethnicity and the sense of personal control. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61, 101–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, M., & Zevon, M. A. (1990). Stress, coping, and family environment. Journal of Adolescent Research, 5, 290–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Super, C. M., & Harkness, S. (1986). The developmental niche: A conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9, 545–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tao, G., Qiu, J., Li, B., Zeng, W., Xu, J., & Goebert, D. (1999). A longitudinal study of psychological development of only and non-only children and families: A 10-year follow-up study in Nanjing. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 13, 210–212.Google Scholar
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weisz, J. R., Rothbaum, F. M., & Blackburn, T. C. (1984a). Standing out and standing in: The psychology of control in America and Japan. American Psychologist, 9, 955–969.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisz, J. R., Rothbaum, F. M., & Blackburn, T. C. (1984b). Swapping recipes for control. American Psychologist, 39, 974–975.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiting, B. B. (1980). Culture and social behavior: A model for the development of social behavior. Ethos, 8, 95–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, Y., Farver, J. M., Yu, L., Zhang, Z., & Cai, B. (2004, July). Validation of the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (EATQ) with Mainland Chinese adolescents. Poster presented at the Biennial Meetings of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, Ghent, Belgium.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×