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Abstract:
The goal of this study was to examine Korean mothers' perceptions of warmth, hostility, and control in different developmental age groups (0-5, 6-11, and 12-17 years old) and across gender. Specifically, the study examined the effects of developmental age and gender on Korean mother's perceived Warmth, Hostility, and Control. A secondary analysis was conducted to examine predictor variables within each age group. A sample of 128 Korean mothers was recruited and asked to fill out the Parent Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire/Control (Parent PARQ/Control: Rohner 1991), the Acculturation Attitude Scale (AAS), the Acculturation Behavior Scale (ABS), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale-Short Form (MCSD-SF). This study found that Korean mothers reported different levels of control and hostility across different age groups, but similar levels of warmth. Specifically, levels of control and hostility differed from ages 0-5 and 6-11 and also differed from age group 6-11 and 12-17 years old, with the highest amount of control and hostility occurring with children ages 6-11. Gender was not a significant predictor of maternal warmth, control, and hostility. Examining each age group separately, social desirability was a significant predictor for Korean mothers with children from 0-5 years old. Acculturation was a significant predictor of perceived control in children ages 6-11 years old. For children ranging from 12-17 years old, socioeconomic status was a significant predictor of perceived parental warmth and control. This study shows that Korean mothers perceive themselves to use different parenting styles across different ages, thus age groups should be researched separately. Moreover, this study showed that using dimensions of parenting rather than parenting typology allowed for clearer analysis of the relationships of parenting behavior. In this sample, there were positive relationships between warmth and control, indicating the possibility of being controlling and accepting, thus indicating the importance of examining dimensions of parenting when studying Korean American parent-child relationships.
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