Parents' Child-Based Worth: Basic Cognitive Process and Implications for Parents' Emotional Functioning and Parenting

Parents' self-worth can become invested in their children's performance. Research shows that parents' child-based worth has implications for their interactions with children. However, child-based worth has only been measured with self-reports. It is unclear whether child-based worth is manifested in parents' basic cognitive process. Moreover, little is known about the role of parents' child-based worth in their emotional functioning and responses to children's performance. The goals of this research were two-fold. The first was to examine whether parents who varied in child-based worth differed in their cognitive processing of representations of the self and child. The second was to examine the implications of parents' child-based worth for their emotional functioning, parenting motivation and practices, and emotional and behavioral responses to children's performance.In Study 1, 639 parents from primary schools in China reported on their child-based worth and completed an online memory recognition task which assessed their recognition memory of evaluative trait adjectives encoded in three conditions: self, child, and semantic. Two sets of measures were also included via questionnaires and supplementary tasks to rule out alternative explanations. Results showed that parents reporting high or average (but not low) child-based worth exhibited the child-reference effect - superior recognition of trait adjectives encoded with reference to the child rather than semantically. Parents reporting high child-based worth were also more accurate in recognizing trait adjectives encoded with reference to the child than the self.In Study 2, 100 parents from a primary school in China participated in a lab experiment in which the feedback about children's performance (i.e., success vs. failure) was manipulated. Parents' emotional functioning and emotional responses to children's performance were assessed with self-reports and physiological measures. Parenting motivation and practices were assessed using self-reports. Parents' behavioral responses to children's performance were assessed based on their written messages to children. Results indicated that parents with heightened child-based worth reported higher trait anxiety, lower trait self-esteem, more controlled motivation for parenting, less use of autonomy support, and greater use of psychological control in daily life. Parents with heightened child-based worth also experienced higher positive affect and state self-esteem in response to children's success, albeit not failure. Parents' child-based worth was not associated with their negative affect, state anxiety, changes in heart rate or skin conductance level, regardless of children's performance in the lab. Parents with heightened child-based worth were more likely to write messages that highlighted children's accomplishments or effort in response to children's success, albeit not failure; they were less likely to write messages that aimed to relieve children's stress regardless of children's performance in the lab.Findings suggest that when parents hinge their self-worth on children's performance, they may process evaluative information related to children more deeply, which may inform actions. Parents with heightened child-based worth tend to have more negative emotional functioning, more controlled motivation for parenting, more use of psychological control, and less use of autonomy support. They also tend to be more sensitive in their positive emotional responses and success-oriented responses in the face of children's success.父母的自我價值感可能會建立在子女的表現上，這種傾向被稱為「掛勾心理」。本研究旨在檢驗「掛勾心理」是否體現在父母的認知過程中，「掛勾心理」如何影響父母的情緒功能、教養動機和行為、以及面對子女成績時的情緒和行為反應。研究一中，639位小學生父母報告了他們的「掛勾心理」，並完成了一項在線記憶任務，以測量父母對三種編碼方式（即：自我，子女，語義）處理後的特徵形容詞的識別記憶。我們還通過問卷和補充任務排除其他可能的解釋。結果表明，報告較高或平均「掛勾心理」的父母表現出子女參照效應--與語義參照相比，他們更容易識別以子女為參照進行編碼的詞語。與自我參照相比，高「掛勾心理」的父母也更容易識別以子女為參照進行編碼的詞語。研究二中，100位小學生父母參與了一項心理學實驗；該實驗操縱兒童的分數（即：成功組與失敗組），使用自我報告及生理指標測量父母的情緒功能及面對子女表現時的情緒反應，使用自我報告測量父母的教養動機和行為，並通過父母對子女的寄語來測量面對子女表現時的行為反應。結果表明，具有高「掛勾心理」的父母報告更高的特質焦慮和更低的特質自尊，更多控制型教養動機，更少使用自主支持行為，更多使用心理控制行為。具有高「掛勾心理」的父母面對子女的成功（而非失敗）時報告更高的積極情緒和狀態自尊；我們並未發現「掛勾心理」與父母面對子女表現時的消極情緒、狀態焦慮、心率或皮膚電導水平的變化有任何關係。此外，具有高「掛勾心理」的父母在面對子女的成功（而非失敗）時也更傾向於在寄語中強調子女的成就或努力；無論子女成績如何，他們不太可能寫下旨在減輕子女壓力的寄語。研究表明，當父母的自我價值感建立在子女的表現上時，他們可能更深入地加工與子女相關的評價信息，這可能會影響父母的行為。高「掛勾心理」的父母具有更多消極情緒功能、更多控制型教養動機，使用更多的心理控制行為和更少的自主支持行為；在面對孩子的成功時呈現更加敏感的情緒和行為反應。ZHANG, Mengrun.Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2021.Includes bibliographical references (leaves )Abstracts in English and Chinese.Title from PDF title page (viewed on ...