Immigrant-Chinese and Euro-American parents' physical closeness with young children: themes of family relatedness.
This study examined cultural differences in the expression and meaning of physical closeness. Findings indicated that immigrant-Chinese parents, as compared with Euro-American parents, sleep in closer proximity with their children; more often view independence as children growing with the family; are more likely to emphasize the family unit; and place greater importance on inhibition of expression, adherence to correct values, and hierarchy of relations. Euro-Americans, by contrast, are more accepting of nudity; place more emphasis on psychological benefits of physical closeness and on the child's expression of wants and feelings; more often view independence as celebrating the child's distinctiveness; and place greater importance on intimacy, pleasure, and spousal exclusiveness. The authors suggest that closeness is characterized by an overarching theme of harmony in immigrant-Chinese families and by an overarching theme of romance in Euro-American families.
Rothbaum
F
F
Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA. frothbau@tufts.edu
Morelli
G
G
Pott
M
M
Liu-Constant
Y
Y
D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012951:Socialization; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*