Does tiger parenting work in contemporary China? Exploring the relationships between parenting profiles and preschoolers’ school readiness in a Chinese context

This study explored the relationships between parenting profiles and young children’s school readiness in urban China. Eighty-six pairs of Chinese parents completed the Chinese Parenting Style Questionnaire (CPSQ), and their children were administered the Bracken School Readiness Composite (BSRC; Bracken, B. A. (1998). Bracken basic concept scale: Revised. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.) and Preschool and Primary Chinese Literacy Scale (PPCLS; Li, H. (1999). Development and validation of the Preschool and Primary Chinese Literacy Scale. Psychological Development and Education, 15, 18–24.). A set of statistical analyses was conducted to explore the relationship between the three types of parenting profiles (supportive, tiger and easygoing) and children’s scores in BSRC and PPCLS, and four typical couples were invited to attend semi structured interviews. The results indicated that: (1) Inter-parental consistency in supportive parenting were associated with better children’s school readiness, but not for consistency in easygoing or tiger parenting; (2) Tiger mothers were not associated with better outcomes in either boys or girls; (3) Significant interaction effect was found between child gender and parenting profile. The findings have implications for the theoretical development of parental education and related programmes. Understanding the differentiated parenting styles and practices with boys and girls will help parents and educators to improve their educational practices.