Assessment of beliefs in parental roles and responsibilities of Hong Kong Chinese parents

Abstract

Background: Although parents’ beliefs in their roles and responsibilities have been found to be a crucial dimension in examining parental cognitions, a quantitative measure for such kind of assessment remain unavailable in Chinese societies.

Main body: The goal of this research was to develop and validate a quantitative measure for the assessment of beliefs in parental roles and responsibilities of Chinese parents living in Hong Kong. A sample of 5,521 Hong Kong Chinese parents spanned across six generational cohorts (before the 1970’s, in the 1970’s, the 1980’s, the 1990’s, the 2000’s, and the 2010’s) were recruited to fill out a questionnaire comprising items about different aspects of these beliefs. An Exploratory Factor Analysis on the first sample of 2,925 parents yielded a fivefold factor structure with 23 items. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis on the second sample of 2,596 parents demonstrated an acceptable model fit. These factors revealed five aspects of beliefs in parental roles and responsibilities, including (1) the degree to which parents emphasize child nurturing, (2) the degree to which parents underline the natural development in parenthood, (3) the degree to which parents attach importance to child training and discipline, (4) the degree to which parents affirm the fulfillment of children’s needs, and (5) the degree to which parents highlight the significance of letting go.

Discussion: The results show that there are significant generational differences in all these factors of parents’ beliefs. The development of this questionnaire can fill part of the knowledge gap and initiate future research directions.