Abstract

Early parent-child interactions play a critical role in childrens socioemotional development.

Sensitive parent responses have been associated with childrens emotion understanding.
However, some cross cultural research finds that parenting styles influences might be different in
East Asian versus Western cultures. This study seeks to add to the literature on cross cultural
developmental psychology by investigating how parenting style relates to Japanese preschoolers
emotion knowledge. Fifty one 3- and 4-year-old Japanese childrens emotion knowledge was
assessed with the Affect Knowledge Test. Their mothers completed a parenting style survey and
were videotaped in a semi-structured laboratory setting interacting with their children. The
results showed a negative association between age and (1) maternal sensitivity & responsiveness,
and (2) maternal behavior management. Children with less sensitive & responsive mothers
scored higher on emotion recognition and understanding of emotion-eliciting situations. Our
findings call for (1) further studies of parenting style in East Asian cultures , (2) investigation of
other socioemotional outcomes of parenting style, and (3) more varied parenting style measures.

Introduction
Childrens early social interactions--particularly the mother-child relationship-lay an important foundation for emotional competence .[1]
Two commonly assessed dimensions of parenting style are sensitivity
(responsiveness to needs, comforting, warmth) and behavior control
(emphasizing discipline, monitoring and directing behavior).
Parental responsiveness and behavior management have been positively
associated with childrens emotion knowledge. [2]
Cross-cultural studies of parenting styles have found different results based on
culture. [3]
Limited information exists about what parenting style works best in Japanese
culture, particularly as a contributor to childrens emotion knowledge.

Aims of Study
To investigate whether different parenting styles relate to
Japanese preschoolers emotion knowledge.

Method
Participants
51 3- and 4-year-old Japanese children (29 boys, 22 girls; Mmonth = 46.53,
SD = 6.96) and their mothers (Myear = 34.62, SD = 5.08)
Measures

Recognition
of Emotions

Sub-task

Content and Procedure

Expressive
(Verbal)

Point to each emotion face (Happy/Sad/Angry/Afraid) and ask the child

How does she/he feel?

Receptive
(Non-Verbal)

Ask the child

Point to the Happy (Sad/Angry/Afraid) face

Stereotypical
Understanding of
Emotion-Eliciting
Situations

Naomi

1,2
Watanabe ,
1George

1
Jones ,

Nicole M.
Hideko H.
1
Susanne A. Denham

Mason University, USA,

2NTT

1
Bassett ,

[puppets emotional response is

similar to that of the child]

Non-Stereotypical
[puppets emotional response is
different from that of the child]

Hanako: I just finished building this tower, and I feel really good about it.
Doesnt it look great?
Taro: No! I think it looks yucky. Im going to knock it down! [CRASH]
Hanako: (Angry)
Hanako: We are playing blocks. Were building a house.
Taro: Im going to play with Jiro, and you cant come. POO POO on you!
Hanako: A) Angry B) Sad

Scoring: 0 for wrong response (e.g., happy for sad situation), 1 for correct positive/negative valence
(e.g., angry for sad situation), and 2 for correct response.

Observed Parenting Style Scale (OPSS), adapted from Egeland and

Sroufes (1983)[6] system, assessed mothers observed parenting style
on two dimensions (sensitivity & responsiveness and behavior
management dimensions). Mother-child interactions during free play
and cleanup task were videotaped in a laboratory setting. Mothers
behaviors were coded on 7-point scales.
Parental Childrearing Style Questionnaire[7] measured mothers selfreported parenting style (sensitivity & responsiveness and behavior
management dimensions)
Poster presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Convention, August 2013, Honolulu HI.

2
Kobayashi ,

Tessei

Communication Science Laboratories, Japan

Results and Discussion

Table 1: Descriptive Data of Emotion Knowledge

Descriptive Data

Subscale

Children performed well on all tasks of emotion knowledge, except

expressive recognition task (Table 1).
In general, mothers were high in sensitivity & responsiveness and high
in behavior management (Table 2).

M
1.22

.31

0-2

Receptive recognition

1.65

.39

0-2

SD

Possible
range

Sensitivity & Responsiveness (observed)

5.92

1.13

1-7

Behavior management (observed)

6.39

1.00

1-7

Sensitivity & Responsiveness (self-report)

19.39

2.51

6-24

Behavior management (self-report)

17.02

1.97

5-20

Dimension

Situation Understanding
Stereotypical situation understanding

1.69

.34

0-2

Non-stereotypical situation understanding

1.59

.35

0-2

Table 3: Zero-Order Correlation among Variables

Age was significantly positively correlated with emotion knowledge. Emotion knowledge
develops as children age.
Age was significantly negatively correlated with maternal sensitivity & responsiveness
(observed). Mothers with younger children may be more attentive and responsive to
childrens need.
Age was significantly positively correlated with maternal behavior management (self-report).
Mothers behavioral expectations may increase as children age.
No relation was found among observed and self-reported parenting styles. It is possible that
observed parenting style may be context-specific whereas mothers self-report reflects their
average daily behaviors. Another possibility is that differences exist between mothers selfreport behaviors and their actual behaviors. A study limitation possibly influencing this finding
is that the OPSS is a newly-developed, unvalidated measure.
After controlling for age, there were marginal significant negative correlations between
maternal sensitivity & responsiveness (observed) and children's emotion recognition, and
between maternal sensitivity & responsiveness (self-report) and situation understanding.

Emotion
recognition

Maternal
Situation
sensitivity
understanding responsiveness
(Observed)

.49**

Age
Emotion
recognition

Maternal
behavior
management
(Observed)

Maternal
sensitivity
responsiveness
(Self-report)

Maternal
behavior
management
(Self-report)

.41**

-.38**

-.10

.22

.38**

.62***

-.40**(-.27)

-.21(-.18)

-.04(-.17)

.03*(-.20)

-.10(.07)

.13(.19)

-.14(-.25)

.05(-.13)

.13

.04

-.08

.03

-.15

Situation
understanding
Maternal
sensitivity
responsiveness
(Observed)
Maternal
behavior
management
(Observed)
Maternal
sensitivity
responsiveness
(Self-report)

.14

p < .10 * p < .05 ** p < .01. *** p < .001.

NOTE: Parentheses contain partial correlations after controlling for childrens age.

Table 4: Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Predicting Emotion Recognition

From Maternal Sensitivity and Responsiveness (observed)
Variable

SE B

Step 1
Age

.11

.03

R2

.24

12.58**

.06

3.01

.49**

Step 2
Age

.09

.03

.40*

Maternal sensitivity (observed)

-.36

.21

-.25

p < .10 * p < .05. ** p < .01.

Maternal sensitivity & responsiveness (observed) marginally significantly predicted less childrens
emotion recognition, over and above childs age (Table 4).
Maternal sensitivity & responsiveness (self-report) marginally significantly predicted less childrens
emotion situation understanding, over and above childs age (Table 5).
Children with less sensitive and responsive mothers might compensate for a lack of reliable,
consistent maternal sensitivity & responsiveness by being more attentive to others emotion
expression.

The present study showed that Japanese preschoolers emotion knowledge was
related to maternal sensitivity & responsiveness, but not to maternal behavior
management.
Findings align with previous cross-cultural research showing that parenting style
operates differently in East Asian versus Western culturesJapanese mothers
sensitivity & responsiveness was negatively associated with childrens emotion
knowledge.
Findings suggest that parenting style contribute to preschoolers emotion
development differently across cultures.
However, we are not proposing that less maternal sensitivity & responsiveness
benefits childrenmore cross cultural research is needed to better understand
parenting styles effects on children socioemotional development.

Possible
range

Expressive recognition

Zero-order Correlations among variables (Table 3)

Conclusion & Implications

SD

Table 2: Descriptive Data of Maternal Parenting Style

Emotion recognition

Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis

Affect Knowledge Test (AKT: Denham, 1986; Denham et al., 2002)[4,5]

assessed preschoolers emotion knowledge;
Task

Does Culture Matter? Relations Between Parenting Style and

Japanese Preschoolers Emotion Knowledge

Table 5: Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Predicting Situation Understanding

From Maternal Sensitivity and Responsiveness (self-report)
Variable

SE B

Step 1
Age

.11

.04

R2

.17

9.16**

.05

3.03

.41**

Step 2
Age

.12

.04

.46**

Maternal responsiveness (self-report)

-.17

.10

-.24

p < .10 * p < .05. ** p < .01.

Future Directions
To increase generalizability, replicate with a larger sample, in different cultures.
Use the OPSS to observe parenting style in different contextsmore naturalistic and
with different tasks--and for longer time periods.
Examine the impact of Japanese parenting style with other socioemotional outcomes,
such as prosocial behaviors and problem behaviors (e.g., internalizing/externalizing
problems).
References
[1] Blandon, A. Y., Calkins, S. S., & Keane, S. P. (2010). Predicting emotional and social competence during early childhood from toddler risk and maternal behavior.
Developmental Psychopathology, 22, 119-132.
[2] Alegre, A. (2011). Parenting styles and childrens emotional intelligence: What do we know? The Family Journal, 19, 5662. doi:10.1177/1066480710387486
[3] Pomerantz, E. M., Grolnick, W. S., & Price, C. E. (2007). The role of parents in how children approach achievement. In A.J. Elliot & C.S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of
competence and motivation (pp. 259-278). New York: The Guilford Press.
[4] Denham, S. A. (1986). Social cognition, prosocial behavior, and emotion in preschoolers: Contextual validation. Child Development, 57, 194201.
doi:10.2307/1130651
[5] Denham, S. A., Caverly, S., Schmidt, M., Blair, K. B., DeMulder, E., Caal, S., Mason, T. (2002). Preschool understanding of emotions: Contributions to classroom
anger and aggression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, 901916. doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00139
[6] Egeland, B., Sroufe, L. A., & Ericksom, M. (1983). The developmental consequences of different patterns of maltreatment. International journal of child Abuse
and Neglect, 7, 459-469
[7] Nakamichi, K, & Nakazawa, J. (2003) Maternal/paternal childrearing style and young childrens aggressive behavior. Chiba University Bulletin of the Faculty of
Education, 51, 173179.

For further information, contact Naomi Watanabe (nwatanab@gmu.edu) or Nicole Jones (nmorgan2@gmu.edu)