Predictors of Social Withdrawal and Internalizing Problems in Chinese Floating Population Children

Chinese floating population children are at risk for being the target of teasing and bullying, and for experiencing loneliness, lower self-esteem, and lack of opportunity to develop social skills. The overall goal of the dissertation project was to examine the factors that may contribute to Chinese floating population children's social and emotional development. First, the roles of determinants of parenting (maternal psychological well-being, acculturation to the urban culture, and social support), parenting styles (authoritarian parenting and authoritative parenting), and indigenous parenting practices (shaming/love withdrawal and maternal involvement) on Chinese floating population children's anxious shyness, regulated shyness and internalizing problems were explored. Further, the complex relations between parenting styles, child effortful control, and three child shyness subtypes (temperamental shyness, anxious shyness, and regulated shyness) were examined in moderated mediation models. Four hundred and eighty Chinese floating population mothers with preschool children residing in three cities in Guangdong Province, China participated in the study. The results showed that floating population mothers' acculturation to the urban culture was associated with greater maternal endorsement of the authoritative parenting style and less engagement in the authoritarian parenting style. Also, maternal authoritarian parenting style mediated the relation between mothers' acculturation to the urban culture and children's display of regulated shyness. Moreover, the results from the moderated mediation models indicated that floating population mothers' authoritarian parenting style was negatively associated with their children's effortful control. Child effortful control was in turn positively related to children's regulated shyness, but only for children with low levels of temperamental shyness. The results from the dissertation project contributed to the current literature on children's social withdrawal by identifying predictors of parenting, and parenting and child contributions to shyness in a unique but rapidly growing sample of floating population children. These findings have important implications for the promotion of healthy social-emotional development among floating population children in China