Generational shifts in parenting practices: Themes discerned from a qualitative study

Abstract

Presently, family and parenting has been characterized as fraught with problems: separation, divorce, remarriage, problems in family relation, family in poverty, addicted parents, anxious parents, irresponsible or overprotective parenting, all are terms used that sounding alarms over contemporary family. However, there is little study attempts to understand how contemporary family and parenting has been characterized as such. This presentation shares findings from a qualitative study that aims to examine the generational shifts in parenting practices in the Hong Kong Chinese context. The research process starts with an archival study of discourses on parenting over the last decades, then with 120 in-depth interviews with 60 parents, each interview individually for twice. The participants spanned across five generational cohorts – parenthood in the 1970’s or before, the 80’s, the 90’s, the 2000’s and the 2010’s, with 6 mothers and 6 fathers in each cohort, coming up to a total of 30 mothers and 30 fathers. Narrative accounts of parents reveal generational shifts and gender disparity in parental responsibility that provide indigenous understanding to generational shifts in parental practices. Based on the findings, the presentation discusses implications for parenting wok and proposes directions for family and parenting services.