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Enter the Dragon: Parenting and Low-Self Control in a Sample of Chinese High School Students

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An Erratum to this article was published on 14 April 2012

Abstract

While a number of studies examine the parenting and social bond causes of low self-control in data obtained in the United States, very few focus on these constructs on data collected in international settings. The resulting gap in the literature is a major one in terms of the understanding of how low self-control potentially develops in other countries. This study tests several parenting and social bond models in an attempt to spur future global research on the concepts that are associated with low self-control. The data were collected from a convenience sample of 414 high school students in a suburb of a large Chinese city. Measures of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s parental variables as well as those of other investigators are included. Additionally, important social bonds such as maternal, school, and peer attachment are also specified. Results indicate that almost all of the parenting and bond measures are significantly associated with the development of low self-control. These findings indicate the possibility that both parenting and relationship factors are potentially important to the development of low self-control in Chinese high school students.

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Notes

  1. We acknowledge that some may argue that having the same person translate a questionnaire into one language and then back into English for the same piece of research is inappropriate. However, the author that did so for this study is a native Chinese speaker, obtained a Ph.D in the U.S. almost 15 years ago, and lived in the city where this research was conducted for 25 years prior to emigrating to the United States. As a result, this person is also fluent in the local dialect. We feel that these facts taken together negate any concern about the same person translating this questionnaire.

  2. We realize that some may be concerned about the coding of a few of the items in the index. However, our major purpose in utilizing this version of it was to ascertain if its impact could be replicated within an international sample. As such, we use the original construction of the index as promulgated in Gibbs et al. (1998).

  3. The time specific indicators utilized here can be important in determining when the respondents understood the utility of the parenting practices that they experienced. However, one limitation of using such references is that poor parenting could also be a consequence of self-control. Further, the time specification for the items used in this measure is designed to maintain consistency with the original Gibbs et al. (1998) scale. These designations are not used for the social bond constructs.

  4. While we recognize that some disagreement exists about the construction of self-control using the Grasmick et al. (1993) items, the measurement of the construct for this study is grounded in previous research. For further discussion of the measurement of self-control and its difficulties, see Arneklev et al. (1999), Marcus (2004), Piquero et al. (2000), and Williams et al. (2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Criminal Justice Department, State University of New York, College at Buffalo, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY, 14222, USA

    Michael A. Cretacci

  2. Math & Natural Sciences Department, D’Youville College, 320 Porter Avenue, Buffalo, NY, 14201, USA

    Nancy Cretacci

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  1. Michael A. Cretacci
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Correspondence to Michael A. Cretacci.

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Cretacci, M.A., Cretacci, N. Enter the Dragon: Parenting and Low-Self Control in a Sample of Chinese High School Students. Asian Criminology 7, 107–120 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-012-9129-z

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