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Kate J. Song
Dr. Christopher Gade
Psychology N160
12 August 2015
East vs. West Parenting Styles and Their Effects
Some social influences that affect peoples behaviors include other people and culture. In
Eastern/Asian cultures, individuals are interdependent, in which they rely on each other, and in
Western/European cultures, individuals are independent, in which they think and act for
themselves. Due to these cultural differences, researches conducted experiments to determine
how differently European American and Asian American adolescents are affected by their
parents child-rearing styles. Yoonsun Choi, Su Yeong Kim, You Seung Kim, and Irene J. Parks
article, Is Asian American Parenting Controlling and Harsh? Empirical Testing Relationships
Between Korean American and Western Parenting Measures, focuses on how much harsher
traditional Korean child-rearing style is with the Western authoritative parenting style, which is
considered to be the ideal parenting style. How expectations from parents, peers, teachers, and
others pressure Asian American and European American college students is discussed in Ethnic
Variations Between Asian and European Americans in Interpersonal Sources of Socially
Prescribed Perfectionism: Its Not Just About Parents! by Edward C. Chang and Marisa J.
Perera. Lastly, the article, My Mother and Me: Why Tiger Mothers Motivate Asian Americans
But Not European Americans, by Alyssa S. Fu and Hazel Rose Markus, focuses on the different
ways pressure and involvement of mothers impact Asian American students and European
American students.

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In the first article, Choi, S. Kim, Y. Kim, and Park discuss the differences between Asian
American parenting and Western parenting by focusing on the similarities between ga-jung-kyoyuk, the Korean method of parenting, and the authoritative and authoritarians styles of Western
parenting. Because Eastern cultures stress interdependence, conformity, obligation to the family,
and respect for elders, ga-jung-kyo-yuk emphasizes role-modeling, family hierarchy, respect for
elders, and etiquette. It also practices sleeping with the child and physical punishment, such as
hitting of palms or calves with a stick and raising of arms. In contrast, Western cultures stress
independence, individualism, social assertiveness, and confidence, which explain why the
authoritative style of parenting, which includes expressive warmth, such as hugs and kisses,
definite rules, and independence is the preferred way to raise a child. Authoritarian parenting
includes strict parental control and lack of warmth; this style is said to lead to parent-child
conflict and is not a preferred way of parenting. In this study the researchers predicted that the
ideals of ga-jung-kyo-yuk would have similarities with both the authoritative and authoritarian
parenting styles, have similarities with positive aspects of Western parenting, such as warmth and
communication, and not be related to harsh parenting, excluding the physical punishments found
in traditional Korean discipline. The participants in this survey-based study were Korean
immigrant families with adolescent children. Participants rated five to fifteen questions per topic
on a scale of one to five; the three topics based on he ga-jung-kyo-yuk ideals were Korean
traditional parent virtues and filial pity, traditional familial and cultural values, and Korean
traditional etiquette. In addition, participants were asked if the child and parent slept together and
if so, at what age did they start sleeping separately; they were also asked whether parents
practiced physical discipline with their children. The topics based on Western parenting ideals
were: authoritarian parenting style, authoritative parenting style, parental warmth, parental

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acceptance, parental monitoring, parent-child communications, parental negative discipline, and
parental rejection. As predicted, ga-jung-kyo-yuk was positively associated with authoritative
and authoritarian parenting styles and with Western positive parenting ideals, such as warmth and
communication. Traditional Korean parental virtue, etiquette and sleeping together were not
related to harsh parenting; however, the separate sleeping at an older age and traditional physical
disciplinary actions were related to Western harsh parenting.
Perera and Changs article did not focus on the parenting style of Asian Americans but
rather on from whom students feel pressured to strive for perfection. This study began because
research has shown a cultural difference between Asian Americans and European Americans
when discussing the sources of socially prescribed perfectionism. The participants were 130
university students each of Asian Americans and European Americans. Each participant took a
shortened form of the Socially Prescribed Perfectionism subscale, in which he or she answered
five questions or statements by rating from one to seven how much they agree; the higher the
score means the higher levels of socially prescribed perfectionism. The researchers predicted that
the parents would not be the only source of pressure for both groups, Asian Americans would
view pressure for perfectionism from parents positively, and Asian Americans would have more
sources of pressure than European Americans. Based on the results of the study, Asian Americans
indicated that parents, teachers, friends, peers, and partners were all sources of pressure to be
perfect; however, European Americans only indicated that parents and teachers were sources of
pressure. Parental influence was the strongest for European Americans and had much more
impact to European Americans than to Asian Americans, which could be possibly due to the fact
that European Americans tend to not have any authority figure in their lives other than their
parents, whereas Asian Americans usually have their grandparents, aunts, and uncles along with

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their parents. After parents, Asian Americans received the most expectations from their peers,
and one hypothesis is that Asian Americans try to please peers of their own ethnic group as well
as those of the American group. In addition to people, Asian Americans also felt the need to
meet expectations of perfection from their culture.
In the last article, Fu and Markus researched the differences in how Asian American and
European American children interpret their relationship with their mothers and how they are
affected by their mothers pressure. The researchers theorized that compared to European
Americans, Asian Americans would describe their relationship with their mothers as more
interdependent. They also hypothesized that although Asian Americans would indicate that they
feel more pressure from their mothers, the pressure would not be negative. Lastly, they predicted
that in contrast to European Americans, Asian Americans would be more motivated by their
mothers, especially when working together, after failure. There were four different studies to test
each hypothesis, and each study had a new set of participants, which were a mix of Asian
American and European American high school students. In the first study, students were asked to
describe their mothers in a few sentences; the results indicated that Asian Americans were more
likely to mention their mothers relationship with them, whereas European Americans were more
likely to describe their mothers physical characteristics as well as preferences. In addition, the
results also showed that Asian Americans described their mothers as a source of pressure while
European Americans described their mothers as a source of support. Overall, both groups
answered the prompt with positive attributes to their mothers. In the second study, the
participants were told to choose from seven different overlapping circles to represent the
relationship with their mothers. They were then asked to rate from one to one hundred four
questions about how much they understand each other, how much they accept their mothers

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involvement in their lives, how much pressure they receive from their mothers, as well as how
supportive their mothers are. Based on these results, Asian Americans are more likely to see
their relationship with their mothers as independent, and although they feel more pressure from
their mothers than European Americans do, they do not view the pressure negatively. On the
other hand, European Americans who do feel pressured from their mothers feel that their mothers
do no support and understand them. All in all, both groups reported feeling supported by their
mothers. For the third study, students were told to solve a difficult anagrams task and were given
false feedback stating that they performed well below average. Before their second attempt,
students were told to either describe themselves or their mothers in a couple of sentences. Due to
the interdependent relationship they have with their mothers, Asian Americans were able to be
motivated by themselves and their mothers during the second trial; however, thinking about their
mothers inhibited European Americans, and they performed worse on the second trial. Finally,
the last study was a recreation of the third study, but instead of being asked to describe
themselves or their mothers, they were told to recall either a time when their mother nagged
them to do something while working on it together or a time when their mother nagged them to
do something. The results showed that Asian Americans who have a strong interdependent
relationship with their mother and were told to remember a time when their mother nagged them
to do something but worked on it with them were motivated the most after failure.
Both Choi, S. Kim, Y. Kim, and Parks article and Fu and Markuss article mention Amy
Chuas tiger mom to describe the Asian style of parenting. Fu and Markus also references
Choi, S. Kim, Y. Kim, and Park in their notes as people who support Chuas tiger mom method
of parenting. Because both of these articles focus on the parenting techniques of Asian parents,
they also emphasize the interdependent relationship between the child and the parent; the Asian

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style of parenting only works because the culture stresses interdependence, which is why the
child is able to handle pressure and physical disciplinary measures without feeling resentment.
Fu and Markus go in depth to see how the Asian parenting method affects European American
and Asian American children, whereas Choi, S. Kim, Y. Kim, and Park just compare the Korean
traditional parenting style and the Western parenting styles to show that Asian parenting isnt as
harsh as everyone believes due to the fact that the study results show many similarities between
the two. Unlike Fu and Markus, who only focus on the mother, Choi, S. Kim, Y. Kim, and Park
wanted to see if there were any differences of parenting between the mother and the father. They
found that there wasnt much difference between mothers and fathers, except for the fact that
mothers who practiced the traditional physical punishments are less likely to monitor their
children, and only fathers who support etiquette are more likely to practice physical punishment.
Overall, mothers were more likely to use traditional disciplinary measure than fathers. Unlike the
other two articles, Chang and Peteras article focused on pressure students feel rather than
parenting methods; however, they did find that students regardless of culture feel the most
pressure from their parents. Fu and Markus found that even though Asian American children felt
pressured by their mothers, they did not view this pressure as something negative but as
motivation. Chang and Petera found that Asian Americans feel pressured by peers, friends,
teachers, and partners in addition to their parents to become perfect. Just as Fu and Markus found
that Asian American children feed off of their mother and themselves for motivation as failure,
the reason Asian Americans feel pressured by so many people could be that they draw on the
pressure from those around them to motivate them to become perfect. Fu and Markus stated that
Asian Americans can be motivated this way by anyone with whom they have and interdependent
relationship.

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As a second-generation Korean American, I found all of these articles very interesting
because they pertained to my culture. I never knew there was a name for it, but my parents
practiced the ideals of ga-jung-kyo-yuk, and many of my friends have also grown up this way. In
Korean culture, etiquette and respect for elders is extremely important; it also emphasizes family
and culture. Many of my non-Asian friends find it surprising that I live with my grandmother
back home because in Western cultures, grandparents are sent to retirement homes while in
Korean cultures, grandparents are taken care of by family members. As punishment when I was
younger, my parents would make my sister and I sit on our knees, raise our hands, and
contemplate what we had done before asking for forgiveness. Occasionally, they hit our palms
but never harshly. On the other hand, I thought it was interesting that Asian American students
were motivated more when they thought of their mothers after failure because I dont think that
would work on me. My parents did not monitor me closely as a typical Asian parent described in
these articles would; therefore, I had some independence, which is found mostly in Western
cultures. Due to this, I feel that I would not be particularly motivated by thoughts of my mother
nor would I do worse because I was still raised to have an interdependent relationship with my
family, and that wouldnt hinder my independence to make me do worse. I also found it
interesting that European Americans view success as an individual feat, and thoughts of their
mothers are viewed as stealing the spotlight, which impairs their motivation.

References

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Choi, Y., Kim, S., Kim, Y., & Park, I. (2013). Is Asian American Parenting Controlling and
Harsh? Empirical Testing of Relationships Between Korean American and Western
Parenting Measures. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 4(1), 19-29.
doi:10.1037/a0031220
Fu, A., & Markus, H. (2014). My Mother and Me: Why Tiger Mothers Motivate Asian
Americans But Not European Americans. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
40(6), 739-749. doi:10.1177/0146167214524992
Perera, M., & Chang, E. (2015). Ethnic Variations Between Asian and European Americans in
Interpersonal Sources of Socially Prescribed Perfectionism: Its Not Just About Parents!
Asian American Journal of Psychology, 6(1), 31-37. doi:10.1037/a0036175