Abstract
Although Chinese parents are seen as employing guilt and shame induction to socialize children’s culturally appropriate behavior, research has focused primarily on Chinese parents’ use of these inductions and their links with child adjustment rather than on children’s evaluations of them. Furthermore, this research typically does not examine variations in children’s appraisals based on the type of behavior being socialized. The present study addressed these gaps in the literature by examining 206 Hong Kong Chinese children’s and early adolescents’ (Ms = 9.76, 13.35 years, SDs = 0.78, 0.54; 50% and 61% female, respectively) appraisals of maternal guilt induction (act- vs. parent-focused) and shame induction (social comparison vs. denigration) following a hypothetical moral and academic transgression. Overall, act-focused guilt induction was evaluated as more appropriate, respectful, effective, and reflective of mothers’ love and concern than parent-focused guilting, and in turn, social comparison shaming, and then denigration and more so overall for the moral than the academic transgression. Early adolescents judged act-focused guilting for the moral transgression as more effective and eliciting more positive feelings than did children. Although culturally valued, social comparison shame (and also denigration) were judged as less appropriate, less effective, as reflecting less maternal love and concern, and as eliciting less positive feelings (but only for social comparison shaming in response to lower-than-expected academic performance) by early adolescents as compared to younger peers, suggesting that youth become more critical of these culturally appropriate practices in the transition to adolescence.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for their help with data collection and the school teachers and students in Hong Kong for their cooperation and participation in the research. We are also grateful to Jennie Alberti-Silverstein, Ginnie Kim, Melanie Olmo, Jennifer Ramsdell, Rachel Siciliano, and Megan Scroger for their assistance with data entry.
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J.S., J.Y.Y., and W.R. conceived of the study, participated in its design, and drafted the manuscript; in addition, J.Y.Y. coordinated the study, J.S. conducted the statistical analyses, and W.R. participated in the interpretation of the data. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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The study procedure and measures were approved by the Human Research Review Board of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the study procedures complied with the ethical standards of this review board and with the tenets of the American Psychological Association.
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Smetana, J.G., Yau, J.Y.P. & Rote, W.M. How Do Chinese Youth in Hong Kong Evaluate Maternal Guilt and Shame Induction? Age, Form, and Domain Differences. J Youth Adolescence 50, 2096–2107 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01468-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01468-2