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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2025 May 1.
Published in final edited form as: Soc Dev. 2023 Nov 7;33(2):e12722. doi: 10.1111/sode.12722

Parent-Child Relationship Buffers the Impact of Maternal Psychological Control on Aggression in Temperamentally Surgent Children

Yao Sun 1, Charissa S L Cheah 2,*, Craig H Hart 3
PMCID: PMC11086977  NIHMSID: NIHMS1942055  PMID: 38736675

Abstract

Children’s temperamental surgency is associated with later child behavioral problems. However, the underlying mechanisms linking child surgency and child aggression, such as negative parental control, are relatively understudied. Moreover, the potential protective effect of a close parent-child relationship on these associations remains untested, particularly among non-White families. Participants included 259 Chinese American preschoolers (Mage = 4.5 years, SD = 0.9 years, 50% girls) and their mothers (Mage = 37.9 years, SD = 4.7 years), the present study examined the moderating effects of parent-child relationship quality on the association between mother-rated child surgency and teacher-rated child aggression as mediated by maternal psychological control. Overall, results showed that child surgency was linked positively to maternal psychological control, which, in turn led to higher levels of child aggression six months later, but only when the parent-child relationship quality was less optimal. These findings indicate that psychological control is one underlying mechanism linking child temperament and child maladjustment, and that parent-child relationship quality is an important protective factor. Findings also expand an existing theoretical framework by explicating how these variables are applicable to an Asian American population, suggesting the critical buffering role that parent-child relationship quality plays. The study findings inform efforts to mitigate the potential negative effect of psychological control in reducing childhood aggression.

Keywords: Temperament, Child surgency, Psychological control, Child Aggression, Parent-child relationship, Chinese American

Child aggression is one of the most common forms of child behavioral problems (Furniss et al., 2006) and is related robustly to various indicators of maladjustment such as peer rejection, depressive symptoms, and school difficulties in childhood and beyond (Ettekal & Ladd, 2020; Krygsman & Vaillancourt, 2019). Children’s early temperamental traits have been found to predict child aggression (Rothbart, 2007). Specifically, surgency, the focus of the current study, is a temperamental trait that has been associated repeatedly with elevated child aggression, although it is less studied than other temperamental traits such as negative affectivity and effortful control (Stifter & Dollar, 2016).

Kochanska et al.’s (2019) framework of parent-child socialization also posits a causal sequence linking challenging child temperament to parental negative control, and then to child disruptive behaviors. Importantly, these authors suggest that the positive quality of early parent-child relationships may defuse the unfolding of this sequence by reducing parental use of negative control and by minimizing its negative impact on the development of children’s disruptive behaviors. Although this theoretical proposition is well-articulated, it is relatively understudied, especially longitudinally. Another factor that should be considered in understanding the interplay between temperament and parenting is the role of culture. The development of adjustment problems in young children is known to be contingent on child characteristics, children’s experiences with their parents, and the sociocultural context in which they are reared (Seo et al., 2021). However, examinations of the interplay among these factors in non-White families still are limited.

Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the longitudinal association between child surgency and child aggression and to test simultaneously the mediating role of parental psychological control and the moderating influence of parent-child relationship quality in this association. Guided by Kochanska et al.’s (2019) socialization framework, we assessed the protective role of parent-child relationship quality in defusing two links: the association between children’s surgency and maternal engagement in psychological control and the relation between maternal psychological control practices and children’s aggressive behaviors.

Psychological Control Mediates Between Surgency and Aggression

Children’s innate traits are highly predictive of their behavioral responses and development (DeLisi & Vaughn, 2014). Child surgency is characterized by high levels of impulsivity, activity, high intensity pleasure, and unreserved approach to novelty. Highly surgent children tend to exhibit more positive emotions and are more likely to approach novelty and engage in group play (Rothbart et al., 2001). Due to high-surgent children’s positive emotionality and sociability, surgency is viewed by some as a positive trait. In fact, several studies linked child surgency to positive outcomes such as prosocial behaviors and high social competence (see Yavuz-Müren et al., 2022 for a review). However, children with high surgency also are found to be prone to anger, which is a significant predictor of childhood aggression (Dollar & Stifter, 2012; Rothbart et al., 2001). Moreover, due to their uninhibited nature, these highly sociable children also are at risk for experiencing peer rejection and developing aversive social behaviors such as aggression (Dollar & Stifter, 2012; Rothbart, 2007). In supporting this proposition, Nwadinobi and Gagne (2020) found that both parent-rated impulsivity and activity levels were associated concurrently and strongly with children’s elevated aggressive behaviors in a group of U.S. children. Similarly, de Maat et al. (2022) reported that Dutch children’s parent-rated surgency level was linked positively and robustly to children’s externalizing behaviors including aggression. Moreover, He et al. (2017) found that child exuberance was associated positively with Chinese children’s display of externalizing behaviors.

Although the direct relation between child surgency and child aggression is relatively well documented, the potential mechanisms that may underlie this association have been studied less. Researchers have suggested that child surgency appeared to have an effect on negative child adjustment because these characteristics tend to elicit more negative control from parents (Kochanska et al., 2019; Lengua & Kovacs, 2005). Thus, we speculate that negative parental control might be a potential mediating mechanism underlying the association between child surgency and child aggression. Negative parental control encompasses a number of parenting practices that are harsh and forceful such as power-assertive parenting, harsh behavioral control and the focus of this study, psychological control (Kochanska et al., 2019). Parental psychological control, specifically, is defined as negative parenting behaviors that attempt to control children by implementing psychological tactics such as love withdrawal and shaming (Scharf & Goldner, 2018; Soenens & Vansteenkiste, 2010). Psychological control involves parents’ use of intrusive and manipulative parenting practices that harm children’s development of positive psychological functioning by violating their sense of self and psychological autonomy (Barber & Harmon, 2002; Scharf & Goldner, 2018). Echoing this view, Nelson et al. (2013) found that a multitude of psychologically controlling practices are associated with increased childhood aggression as early as the preschool years in Russia.

Parents tend to exert psychological control when they assume their children are incapable of handling social interactions successfully (Ma & Bellmore, 2012). As a consequence, high-surgent children who display high activity levels and impulsivity are more likely to be perceived as less in control, thus potentially eliciting more psychological control from parents. Moreover, parents may evaluate children’s temperamental traits and social behaviors according to cultural values endorsed in the broader community and society (Chen, 2018). For example, certain components of surgency, such as approach to novelty and positive emotionality, are regarded as desirable in independence-focused Western societies but these characteristics might be less desirable in other societies (Chen, 2018). Specifically, in Chinese culture, suppression of children’s impulsivity and emotions is viewed as the traditional societal norm due to a focus on interdependence and maintaining group harmony (Kwong et al., 2018; Yang, 1986). Therefore, Chinese parents might react to their children’ temperamental negative emotionality and low inhibitory control (Cheah et al., 2016) and impulsivity (Chen et al., 2020) with greater engagement in control (including psychological control) to change their behavior. Further, as Chinese immigrant parents become more acculturated toward the host Western culture, their ideologies around parenting and their views on child behaviors might become increasingly aligned with Western cultural values (e.g., exert less parental control, grant greater child autonomy, and value more assertiveness; Cheah et al., 2009; Xu et al., 2004). Therefore, it is important to account for acculturation levels when studying immigrant families.

Importantly, Kochanska et al. (2019) specified that the negative parental control elicited by challenging child temperament is likely to lead to more disruptive behaviors in children. Studies also have documented that negative parental control mediated the association between child temperament and child aggression. For example, Kochanska and Kim (2012) found in a predominantly White American sample that parents tended to use power assertive parenting toward their anger-prone children, which, in turn, resulted in these children being more likely to engage in rule-breaking behaviors. Moreover, in a study of mainly White families, Kim and Kochanska (2021) found that children’s challenging temperament including impulsivity at ages of two to three years was linked to parental use of power-assertive parenting at four to five years of age, which was associated further with child disruptive and aggressive behaviors at ages six to eight years.

Although not yet tested directly as a mediator, parental psychological control has been documented to be associated with child temperament and behavioral problems. However, psychological control may be perceived differently in various cultural contexts. Although, psychological control has been shown generally to be harmful in diverse populations, its effects seem to be less consistent among Asian families (Scharf & Goldner, 2018). For instance, Chen et al.’s (2020) study yielded a reciprocal association between psychological control and child physical aggression among a group of Chinese school-age children. These authors also found that child impulsivity was related longitudinally to more parental psychological control and more child physical aggression (Chen et al., 2020). Alternatively, some dimensions of milder forms of psychological control, such as guilt induction, are believed to promote indigenous Chinese socialization goals and are linked to adaptive behaviors in young children. For example, Yu et al. (2019) found that love withdrawal was associated with increased child bullying/aggressive behaviors whereas parent-oriented guilt induction was linked to reduced bullying/aggressive behaviors over time in a sample of Chinese American preschoolers. Moreover, Fung and Lau (2012) found that Chinese parents’ use of hostile psychological control (criticism and invalidation) was related to children’s increased externalizing problems, but not guilt induction and other variants of psychological control that attune children to the thoughts and feelings of others. For this reason, the present study focused on the harsher and more forceful forms of psychological control including love withdrawal, erratic emotional behavior, personal attack and invalidating feelings, as these forms are documented more consistently to be detrimental to Asian children’s development (e.g., Cheah et al., 2019; Yu et al., 2019). Taken together, it stands a reason that parental psychological control might be one of the underlying mechanisms in the association between child surgency and child aggression.

The Moderating Role of Parent-Child Relationship Closeness

Drawing upon social learning theory and attachment theory, Kochanska and colleagues have argued that when the parent-child relationship is positive, child temperament is less likely to elicit negative parental control and that such control, even when used, is less likely to lead to children’s disruptive and aggressive behaviors (Kochanska & Kim, 2012; Kochanska et al., 2019). The authors proposed two viable ways through which a close parent-child relationship provides protection: the first is through reducing the use of psychological control elicited by child temperament; the second is through mitigating the negative impact of psychological control on child maladjustment.

It is likely that a close parent-child relationship can reduce parents’ use of psychological control elicited by child temperamental traits. Parents who share a warm and close relationship with their children tend to perceive their temperamentally active and anger-prone children’s behavior as less provocative, challenging, and aversive and are therefore less likely to engage in negative parental control (Brock & Kochanska, 2019; Kochanska et al., 2019). Kochanska and Kim (2012) found that children’s temperamental proneness to anger and frustration was associated with more negative parental control (i.e., power assertive parenting); this association, however, was subject to parent-child relationship quality. The authors argued that a positive and close early parent-child relationship set the stage for a cooperative and mutually responsive orientation between the dyad (Kochanska & Kim, 2012). Moreover, parents who share a positive relationship with their children are less likely to experience parental hostile feelings, which often underlie negative parental control. Supporting this view, researchers found that mothers who had high sensitivity to hurtful messages from their children (e.g., messages that connote hostile and distant parent-child relationships) were more likely to react to their children’s challenging temperamental traits such as impulsivity with hostility and psychological control (Walling et al., 2007).

Similarly, a positive parent-child relationship may mitigate the negative effect of parental psychological control on child maladjustment. Children who share a less optimal relationship with their parents tend to view parental controlling behaviors as hostile, unfair, and arbitrary (Gershoff, 2002). As a result, children may resent their parents, reject the socialization messages, and act out aggressively (Kochanska et al., 2019). Indeed, Kim and Kochanska (2021) found that negative maternal behavioral control led to child behavioral problems including aggressive behaviors and that a positive and responsive parent-child relationship buffered children with adversarial orientations toward their parents from developing behavioral problems. Relatedly, Murray et al. (2014) found that parent-child relationship quality moderated the link between parental psychological control and child aggression among a group of preteens. The authors explained that high-quality parent-child relationships might exert its protective power by providing a positive communication environment between parents and children.

The Present Study

Although there is a large body of literature on the role of children’s temperament in their social development (Stifter & Dollar, 2016), the developmental trajectories of temperamentally active and impulsive children in relation to parental control remains understudied. In addition, although Kochanska et al.’s (2019) model has received some empirical support, psychological control, as a form of negative parental control, has been tested rarely in relation to child temperament, child aggression, and the parent-child relationship, especially in Asian American populations (Kim et al., 2014; Kochanska & Kim, 2012; Scharf & Goldner, 2018).

Therefore, the present study examined the moderating effect of a close mother-child relationship on the longitudinal link between child surgency and child aggression via maternal psychological control in Chinese immigrant families in the United States. Specifically, we tested two potential paths where the mother-child relationship might exert protective effects: the path between child surgency and maternal psychological control and the path between maternal psychological control and child aggression. Guided by Kochanska and colleagues’ (Kochanska & Kim, 2012; Kochanska et al., 2019) theoretical and empirical work, we hypothesized that maternal psychological control would emerge as a significant mediator whereas a close mother-child relationship would decrease the negative impact of child surgency and maternal psychological control on both paths. To isolate the effects of main study variables, we controlled for child gender, age, aggressive behaviors at Time 1, and maternal age and maternal acculturation to American culture, as these constructs have been found to be associated with the main study variables (e.g., Björkqvist, 2018; Miao et al., 2018; Toro & Nieri, 2018).

Method

Participants

The participants in our study comprised 259 first-generation Chinese American mothers (Mage = 37.9 years, SD = 4.7 years) and their children (Mage = 4.5 years, SD = 0.9 years, 50% = girls, 89% born in the United States). Mothers were born outside the United States, with the majority born in mainland China (82%), with 14% born in Taiwan, 3% born in Hong Kong, and 1% born in another Asian country. On average, the mothers had been in the United States for 10.8 years (SD = 6.5 years, range = 0.3 to 45.3 years). Of the participating mothers, about 4% had a high school education or less, 28% reported having some college education, and 68% reported having a graduate or professional degree.

Procedure

Participants were recruited from multiple local organizations serving Asian American or immigrant communities including churches, preschools, language schools, supermarkets, and community centers in the Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia region. After obtaining permission from the organizations or businesses, flyers or announcements were shared with parents. Interested parents contacted the researchers and were screened for eligibility, including both parents of the focal child having to be of Chinese heritage. The questionnaires were administered to the participating mothers during home visits and were returned to the research team once completed. With parental permission, the teachers of the participating children were also contacted through emails, phone calls, and fax, to report on child behaviors in the classroom. Teachers were contacted again six months later to report on child behaviors. Written consent was obtained from all participants. The study procedure was approved by the University’s Institutional Review Board (Protocol # 204 Y16CC20229; Title: The Development and Well-being of Asian Families in the United States).

Measures

All measures originally available in English were translated independently into Chinese and back-translated by two bilingual graduate students. The two students then compared their work and resolved any differences. The total score for each measure was calculated by averaging the scores of all items. A higher score indicated a high level of the construct. All measures have been used and shown to demonstrate adequate reliability and validity in Asian American samples in previous research.

Child Surgency.

Child surgency was measured using the 32-item surgency subscales of Child Behavior Questionnaire (Rothbart et al., 2001) completed by the participating mothers. The surgency subscale contains three dimensions, activity level (“is full of energy, even in the evening.”), positive anticipation “shows great excitement when opening a present”), and high intensity pleasure (“enjoys riding a tricycle or bicycle fast and recklessly”). Mothers reported their children’s temperamental characteristics pertaining to surgency on a 7-point scale, with 1 indicating “extremely untrue” and 7 indicating “extremely true.” In the present study, the McDonald’s omega was .83.

Parent-child Relationship Closeness.

Parent-child relationship closeness was assessed using the 15-item Personal Relationship subscale of Parent Child Relationship Questionnaire (Furman & Giberson, 1995). Mothers rated the closeness of relationship with their children in terms of the mutual interests they share, things they do for each other, companionship, and maternal nurturance, on a 5-point scale, with 1 representing “hardly at all” and 5 representing “extremely much,” Some examples include, “How much do you and this child share secrets and private feelings with each other?” and “How much do you play around and have fun with this child?” In the present study, the McDonald’s omega was .89.

Maternal Psychological Control.

Mothers’ psychologically controlling practices were assessed using the Psychological Control Questionnaire (Olsen et al., 2002). We selected a total of 32 items comprising seven forms of harsher and forceful psychological control strategies including directiveness (“I try to change my child”), erratic emotional behavior (“I go back and forth between being warm and critical towards my child”), shaming (“Tell child that he/she should be ashamed when he/she misbehaves”), love withdrawal (“If my child hurt my feelings, I stop talking to my child until my child pleases me again”), invalidating feelings (“I tell my child how to feel or think about things.”), personal attack (“I bring up my child’s past mistakes when criticizing him/her”), and constraining verbal expressions (“I change the subject whenever my child has something to say”). Mothers rated how often they exhibited behaviors related to psychological control towards their children on a 5-point scale, with 1 representing “never” and 5 representing “always.” In the present study, the McDonald’s omega was .86.

Child Aggression.

Children’s proactive aggressive behaviors were assessed using 10 items from the Social Skills Questionnaire (Hart & Robinson, 1996). The child’s teacher reported how often each child displayed behaviors described by each item within the past six months on a 3-point scale, with 0 indicating “never” and 2 indicating “very often.” Teachers completed this measure at two time points, six months apart. Some example items include, “Pick on other children just to be mean,” and “Hits or kicks others for the sake of doing it.” The McDonald’s omega of the present study was .88 at Time 1 and .87 at Time 2.

Maternal American Behavioral Acculturation (Covariate).

Mothers’ level of acculturation to American culture was measured using the Cultural and Social Acculturation scale (Chen & Lee, 1996). This scale includes dimensions that capture the participants’ English proficiency level, social activities with non-co-ethnic individuals, and American living style (celebration of American cultural holidays). Mothers rated their own level of acculturation on a 5-point scale, with 1 indicating “extremely poor” or “never” and 5 indicating “extremely well” or “almost all the time.” Some example items include, “How well do you speak in English” and “How often do you celebrate Western festivals such as Thanksgiving and Halloween?” In the present study, the McDonald’s omega was .72.

Statistical Analyses

To examine our hypotheses, we created two separate moderated mediation models. The mediation part of the model was the same for both models. We treated child surgency as the predictor variable, maternal psychological control as the mediator variable, and Time 2 child aggression as the outcome variable. Child gender, age, maternal age and level of acculturation, and child aggression at Time 1 were entered as covariates in the model. The first moderated model treated mother-child relationship as a moderator of the child temperament to parenting path. In testing this model, we created an interaction term between child surgency and mother-child relationship and regressed it to maternal psychological control, controlling for the same covariates. The second moderated mediation model had the same moderator, but it was entered on the parenting to adjustment path. Likewise, in testing this model, we created an interaction term between mothers’ use of psychological control and mother-child relationship and regressed it to Time 2 child aggression. The same covariates were controlled for in this model. Figure 1 depicted a conceptual diagram of the two proposed models.

Figure 1,

Figure 1,

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conceptual model among child surgency, maternal psychological control, parent-child relationship closeness, and Time 2 child aggression. Child gender, age, mother’s age, acculturation to American culture, and Time 1 child aggression were treated as covariates.

All proposed models were tested using Mplus 7.0. Model fit was evaluated adopting a set of indicators including chi square test, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), standardized root mean residual (SRMR), the comparative fit index (CFI), and the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI). The model is considered well-fitted if RMSEA < 0.06, SRMR < 0.09, CFI> 0.95, and TLI > 0.95 (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Following previous recommendations (Stride et al., 2015), ten thousand bootstrapping samples were drawn to test the mediation effect using 95% confidence intervals that exclude zero as an indicator of significant mediating effects.

Results

A total of 259 and 180 families provided data at Time 1 and Time 2, respectively, resulting a retention rate of 70%, which is typical for retention rates of short-term longitudinal studies (Gustavson et al. 2012). Little’s Missing Completely At Random test results showed that data were missing completely at random [x2 (97) = 104.74, p = .28]. Missing data were handled with Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) which is among the most efficient tools to handle missing data (Graham, 2009). Descriptive analysis and Pearson two-tailed correlations were conducted using SPSS 28. Results were summarized and presented in Table 1. As shown, child surgency was associated positively with maternal psychological control (r = .26, p <. 001). Mothers’ age was related positively to the closeness of their relationships with children (r = .14, p = .04). Mothers’ level of acculturation to American culture was associated positively with both their parent-child relationship closeness (r = .25, p < .001) and their children’s display of aggression at Time 2 (r = .19, p = .02), but not with their use of psychological control (r = −.01, p = .83).

Table 1.

Descriptives of and correlations among study variables.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. Child Gender –
2. Child Age −.04 –
3. Parent Age −.17** .25** –
4. Acculturation −.07 −.00 .18** –
5. Psychological Control .00 .09 .07 −.01 –
6. Parent-Child Closeness −.12 .08 .14* .25** .02 –
7. Surgency −.06 −.01 −.10 −.06 .26** .06 –
8. T1 Aggression −.03 .03 −.02 −.04 −.05 −.02 .05 –
9. T2 Aggression .04 −.01 .07 .19* .14 .01 .02 .05 –
M – 4.5 37.9 2.96 2.27 3.61 4.55 0.09 0.08
SD – 0.9 4.7 0.64 0.39 0.43 0.60 0.21 0.19
Range 1–2 2.3–6.4 26–61 1.08–4.67 1.29–3.69 2.40–4.80 3.06–6.22 0.00–1.30 0.00–1.10
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Note:

*

p < .05

**

p < .01; for the coding of child gender, 1 represented male and 2 represented female.

Model with Moderator on the Temperament–Parenting Path

The first model, with mother-child relationship closeness as a moderator of the temperament to parenting path, yielded good model fit x2(7) = 4.07, p = .77. CFI = 1.00, TLI = 1.38, RMSEA = 0.00, RMSEAR 90% CI = 0.00, 0.06, SRMR = .02. Results are summarized and presented in Table 2. As shown, child surgency was associated positively with psychological control (B = 0.17, SE = .06, p = .00, 95% CI = 0.06, 0.27). Maternal psychological control was linked to child aggression at time 2 (B = 0.11, SE = .04, p = .00, 95% CI = 0.04, 0.19). However, the interaction term was non-significant (B = 0.10, SE = .13, p = .45, 95% CI = −0.16, 0.36).

Table 2.

Unstandardized coefficients of direct paths of the moderated mediation model on the IV-mediator path.

Direct paths of the model B SE p 95% CI
Surgency (SUR) – T2 aggression 0.00 .03 .97 −0.06 – 0.05
Psychological control – T2 aggression 0.11 .04 .00 0.04 – 0.19
Closeness (CL) – Psychological control 0.04 .06 .55 −0.08 – 0.16
Surgency– psychological control 0.17 .06 .00 0.06 – 0.27
SUR x CL – Psychological control 0.10 .13 .45 −0.16 – 0.36
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Model with Moderator on the Parenting–Adjustment Path

The second model, with mother-child relationship as a moderator of the parenting to adjustment path, yielded excellent model fit x2(7) = 5.00, p = .66. CFI = 1. 00, TLI = 1.21, RMSEA = 0.00, RMSEAR 90% CI = 0.00, 0.07, SRMR = .02. As shown in Table 3, after controlling for the covariates, maternal psychological control (B = 0.10, SE = .04, p = .00, 95% CI = 0.04, 0.18) and the interaction term between maternal psychological control and mother-child relationship closeness (B = −0.20, SE = .11, p = .05, 95% CI = −0.45, −0.03) were both associated significantly with child aggression at Time 2. Child surgency was linked positively to maternal psychological control (B = 0.17, SE = .05, p = .00, 95% CI = 0.07, 0.28) but was not linked directly to child aggression at Time 2 (B = 0.01, SE = .03, p = .83, 95% CI = −0.05, 0.06). Notably, mothers’ level of acculturation to American culture was linked positively to child aggression at Time 2 (B = 0.08, SE = .03, p = .02, 95% CI = 0.02, 0.15). In contrast, child gender (B = 0.04, SE = .03, p = .24, 95% CI = −0.02, 0.11) and age (B = −0.01, SE = .02, p = .38, 95% CI = −0.04, 0.02) were not associated with Time 2 child aggression. Follow-up simple slope analyses were conducted to probe the moderation effect. Results showed that child surgency contributed indirectly to higher levels of child aggression at Time 2 via elevated maternal psychological control only when their parent-child closeness was low (B = 0.03, SE = .02, p = .03, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.07) or average (B = 0.02, SE = .01, p = .04, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.04), but not when parent-child closeness was high (B = 0.00, SE = .01, p = .75, 95% CI = −0.01, 0.03).

Table 3.

Unstandardized coefficients of direct paths of the moderated mediation model on the mediator-DV path.

Direct paths of the model B SE p 95% CI
Surgency – T2 aggression 0.01 .03 .83 −0.05 – 0.06
Psychological control (PC) – T2 aggression 0.10 .04 .00 0.04 – 0.18
Closeness (CL) – T2 aggression −0.02 .04 .59 −0.11 – 0.05
Surgency– psychological control 0.17 .06 .00 0.07 – 0.28
PC x CL – T2 aggression −0.20 .11 .05 −0.45 – −0.03
Indirect paths between surgency and T2 aggression B SE p 95% CI
Low parent-child closeness 0.03 .02 .03 0.01 – 0.09
Average parent-child closeness 0.02 .01 .04 0.00 – 0.04
High parent-child closeness 0.00 .01 .75 −0.02 – 0.02
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Discussion

Despite the association between child surgency and disruptive and aggressive behaviors (DeLisi & Vaughn, 2014; Stifter et al., 2016), the underlying mechanisms and potential protective factors in this association have been relatively understudied, especially among Chinese immigrant families in the United States (Yu et al., 2019). Guided by Kochanska and colleagues’ framework (Kochanska & Kim, 2012; Kochanska et al., 2019), the aims of the present study were to examine the mediating effect of maternal psychological control and the moderating effect of the mother-child relationship on the association between child surgency and child aggression among Chinese American families. Overall, our results showed that child surgency was linked positively to maternal psychological control, which in turn led to higher levels of child aggression six months later, but only when the parent-child relationship quality was less optimal.

Moderating Effect of Parent-Child Relationship on the Temperament–Parenting Path

Kochanska et al. (2019) proposed that children are less likely to evoke negatively controlling parenting from parents when there is a secure parent-child bond. Contrasting this view, our results showed that the positive link between child surgency and maternal use of psychological control did not vary as a function of the mother-child relationship closeness. In other words, in our sample, Chinese immigrant mothers tended to respond to their children’s exhibition of high activity levels and high intensity pleasure with psychologically controlling parenting practices, regardless of the quality of the relationships with their children. These results support the notion that child surgency can be conceptualized as a negative trait as opposed to a positive temperamental trait (Yavuz-Müren et al., 2022) when considering its association with an elevated parental use of psychological control in Chinese immigrant families.

These findings contrast with prior studies suggesting that parents who share a mutually positive relationship with their children tend to view challenging child behaviors as less provocative and aversive and were thus less likely to adopt coercive practices (Brock & Kochanska, 2019; Kochanska et al., 2019; Kochanska & Kim, 2012). One possible explanation is that child surgency is considered more aversive in Chinese American families than in White American samples (Cheah et al., 2016; Kwong et al., 2018; Yang, 1986), and therefore, its association with psychologically controlling parenting is less malleable by the parent-child relationship quality. Another potential reason is that although psychological control is considered negative parental control in general, it is viewed as more normative and beneficial in East Asian cultures. Thus, Chinese immigrant mothers might engage in psychological control in a calmer, deliberate, and less malicious way, embodying concern and care instead of hostility (Cho et al., 2021; Louie et al., 2013; Rudy & Grusec, 2006).

Interestingly, for the Chinese mothers in our sample, their engagement of psychological control was not associated with their levels of behavioral acculturation toward the mainstream American culture. However, we found that Chinese immigrant mothers with higher levels of acculturation toward the mainstream American culture reported closer parent-child relationships and that children of parents with higher mainstream acculturation levels showed more aggressive behaviors, which may reflect the cultural values regarding conflict resolution. Traditional Confucian values view open conflict and altercation as harmful behaviors because they disrupt the social order and group harmony, and these behaviors usually would receive strong disapproval and sanctions (Xu & Zhang, 2008). Conversely, according to Western ideologies, assertiveness and standing up to protect one’s own rights are encouraged to assert one’s individuality (Xu et al., 2004). Therefore, mothers who are more acculturated toward the American culture might view their children’s aggressive behaviors as more acceptable than less acculturated mothers and are therefore less likely to restrain these behaviors (Forbes et al., 2009).

Moderating Effect of Parent-Child Relationship on the Parenting–Adjustment Path

In keeping with Kochanska et al.’s (2019) framework, however, we found that the closeness of the mother-child relationship moderated the path between maternal psychological control and child aggression such that child surgency was linked indirectly to more child proactive aggression via elevated maternal psychological control only when the mother-child relationship closeness level was low or average. In contrast, for mother-child dyads whose relationships were highly close, the effect of this indirect association was buffered. These results suggest that Chinese American children who share warm and close relationships with their mothers are less likely to suffer from the negative social consequences of their mothers’ use of psychological control.

One explanation is that when children’s relationships with their mothers are more positive, they are less likely to interpret their mothers’ engagement in psychologically controlling practices as hostile and arbitrary and are more likely to accept the socialization messages (Kochanska et al., 2019). In our study, mother-child relationship closeness was indicated by the extent to which parent and child shared mutual hobbies, confided in each other about feelings, and scaffolded children in a nurturing way. These patterns of parental behaviors help to build a safe socialization environment where children are more likely to trust the reasons behind parenting practices and comply with them (Gershoff, 2002). Conversely, without a warm and close bond between parent and child, harsh control fosters a threatening home environment and facilitates learning to leverage aggression and exert manipulative power over others in attempt to achieve goals which are the main motivations of proactive aggression (Pang et al., 2013). Echoing this view, Kim and Kochanska (2021) suggested that positive relationships between mothers and children create a positive ambience for socialization; even when mothers engage in forceful control, children are less likely to develop behavioral problems. Murray et al. (2014) also found that the high-quality mother-child relationship might have fostered a positive communication channel between parents and children, thereby buffering children against the negative link between father’s use of psychological control and children’s aggression in a sample of mainly White and Asian youth. Taken together, our findings highlight the direct, indirect, and interactive effect of individual, parental, and relational factors on Chinese American children’s social development.

Limitations and Future Directions

Our study is not without limitations. The first set of limitations pertains to the demographic characteristics of our sample. Despite our multiple recruiting approaches, the sample comprised mainly of Chinese immigrant mothers with high educational backgrounds. The educational level of our sample is representative of the educational distribution of Chinese immigrants in the specific region of the United States in which the current study was conducted (Institute for Immigration Research, 2022). However, these findings may not generalize to families with lower parental education levels, as parental educational levels have been found to be associated with more engagement in psychologically controlling parenting (Soenens & Vansteenkiste, 2010). Moreover, Chinese immigrants are a heterogeneous and diverse group reside across different regions of the United States, and research has documented the regional differences of Chinese immigrants (Keister et al., 2016). Therefore, our sample from the Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia region cannot represent Chinese immigrants in other regions of the United States. To address these limitations, future investigations should strive to examine these processes in more educationally diverse and geographically representative samples.

The second set of limitations pertains to the research methodology of the present study. Our study only included mother participants. Considering the differential and complementary effects of paternal and maternal psychological control (Murray et al., 2014), future studies should examine the joint contributions of both paternal and maternal parenting beliefs and practices. In addition, a more nuanced approach to examine the effect of different dimensions of psychological control (e.g., hasher versus milder forms of psychological control) in Chinese American samples also should be adopted in future research (Fung & Lau, 2012; Yu et al., 2019) to capture the potential differential effects of these dimensions (e.g., Nelson et al., 2013). Also, the present study assessed child proactive aggression. However, aggressive behaviors can be manifest in multiple forms (e.g., physical and relational) and functions (e.g., proactive and reactive; Nelson et al., 2022) and can be viewed differently by parents and teachers (Swit et al., 2018). In addition, certain forms and types of aggression seem to be linked more robustly to child surgency than others (e.g., reactive aggression; Xu et al., 2009) and are viewed as more problematic in Chinese cultural background (e.g., proactive physical aggression; Xu & Zhang, 2008). Taken together, future studies should include various forms and functions of aggressive behaviors, such as reactive, physical, or relational aggression, to provide a more comprehensive picture of the contributions of these processes to the development of childhood aggressive behaviors.

Moreover, although we have adopted a longitudinal study design and controlled for the Time 1 outcome variable, we only collected data at two timepoints. Therefore, we were unable to conduct a “complete longitudinal mediation” model where the predictor variable, the mediator, and the outcome variables are collected from three different timepoints and respective variables from previous timepoints are controlled (Jose, 2016). Given this limitation, we cannot fully exclude potential effects due to time. Therefore, generalizations regarding our findings should be made with caution. Finally, despite the collection of data from different informants, in our study, the parent-child relationship was reported by mothers only. It is possible that the ratings of mothers are subject to factors such as social desirability and the mood of the reporter (Gardner, 2000). To reduce biases, future studies should assess parent-child relationship using more objective measurements such as observations (Huang et al., 2022).

Implications and Recommendations

Despite these limitations, the present study has several notable strengths. First, our study adopted a short-term longitudinal design and controlled for children’s aggressive behaviors at Time 1, thus going beyond concurrent associations. Second, our data were collected from multiple informants (i.e., parents and teachers), which decreased some common method variance issues (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Third, our study contributes to the literature by expanding the focus of temperamental traits to include the less studied child surgency and its contributions to child aggression over time (Stifter & Dollar, 2016). Given the contradictory direct associations found between child surgency and children’s positive and negative social behaviors (Yavuz-Müren et al., 2022), more studies – ideally ones that examine the different facets of child surgency (e.g., impulsivity, positive affectivity, extraversion) – are needed. Finally, our study addressed the paucity of literature on non-White samples by examining these complex developmental processes among Chinese immigrant families in the United States.

The present study findings also have important theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the present study provides important insights into the mechanisms underlying Chinese immigrant parents’ engagement in psychological control. In addition, our findings supported certain parts of Kochanska and colleagues’ framework but revealed some limitations to other aspects (Kochanska & Kim, 2012; Kochanska et al., 2019) when applied to an ethnic minority sample.

In terms of the application of these findings, intrusive maternal control that invalidates and constrains child expression of thoughts and feelings should be avoided as these practices, when evoked by child surgency, tend to promote more childhood aggressive behavior with peers, even in Chinese immigrant families, for whom these practices have been proposed to be more normative (Louie et al., 2013; Rudy & Grusec, 2006). Thus, it could be helpful for parent educators to coach mothers on other methods of responding to their children’s temperamental surgency instead of psychological control.

In addition, given the protective role of close mother-child relationships in mitigating the negative effects of maternal psychological control, these findings can inform the development of culturally relevant educational programs aimed at improving parent-child relationships and parenting in Chinese immigrant families, with a focus on reducing instances of child aggression, especially in families with temperamentally surgent children. Such programs should consider including activities aimed at increasing quality parent-child time, finding mutual interests, and encouraging the sharing of feelings. Moreover, because parent-child relationship quality tends to remain stable over time, long-term benefits for both children and parents who have a close early parent-child bond may be reaped (Bornstein & Putnick, 2021). Therefore, it is important for parents of temperamentally surgent children to foster mutually positive relationships and less coercive practices proactively when their children are young to reduce risk factors associated with childhood aggression within Chinese American families.

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1R03HD052827-01) awarded to Charissa S. L. Cheah, and the Marjorie Pay Hinckley Endowed Chair and the Zina Young Williams Card Professorship at Brigham Young University awarded to Craig H. Hart. We would like to thank the Chinese American parents and children who participated in our study. We also appreciate all the undergraduate and graduate research assistants for their help with this project.

Footnotes

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests

Contributor Information

Yao Sun, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland 21250

Charissa S. L. Cheah, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland 21250.

Craig H. Hart, Department of Family Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602

Data Availability Statement

Data available on request from the authors

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Data Availability Statement

Data available on request from the authors

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