Parenting Styles in Canada and China: A Comparative Study

Running Head: CHILD DEVELOPMENT 1
Child Development 1
Name
Institution

CHILD DEVELOPMENT 1 2
Child Development 1
Introduction
Every parent wants to raise healthy, as well as happy children. Since children rely on
adults for care and love, they are given special recognition under the law. Canada is among the
countries around the world that is signatory to the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of
the Child, that establishes the rights to safeguard the child’s fundamental rights and freedoms
(Rathus & Rinaldi, 2015). In addition, Canada has created its own specific laws to protect
children and give them certain rights. Attitudes toward discipline and punishment are shifting in
Canada. The Canadian society acknowledges that parents all have their own set of distinctive
values along with beliefs towards rearing their children. In the last two decades, researchers have
surveyed different parenting styles along with practices in Chinese and North American parents
(In Chuang & In Costigan, 2018). It has been found that Chinese parents are more authoritarian
than the North American counterparts while rearing their children. In addition, the parents from
China tend to employ coercive plus high-power parenting and stress child conformity. The paper
will examine the difference in parenting styles between Chinese and Canadian parents.
Differences between Parenting Styles in Canada and China
Authoritarian/ Disciplinarian Parenting Style
Authoritarian parenting style is a style that attempts to create, guide as well as scrutinize
the behaviour plus attitude of the child relying on the set of normal personality. In this style of
parenting, children live under control of the parent, and are denied autonomy to do things their
style, where nearly all decisions plus actions performed by kids are selected by their parents. In

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Canada, children are allowed to build up a “sense of self”, where the ability of the child to
expand autonomy, courage, as well as expression of him/herself at a tender age is emphasized.
The kids are not forced to do things, but allowed to embrace freedom and encourage expression
of oneself. Parents in Canada present their children with daily options to inspire them to exercise
with the goal of claiming themselves (Zhou, Sandler, Millsap, Wolchik & Dawson-McClure,
2008). In addition, parents in Canada do not consider in reminding their kids about the precedent
makes because it may hurt their esteem or make them humiliated rather. On the other hand,
Chinese parents are more authoritative that is designed to make children develop strong
relationship with family members and humanity. The individual independence is not stressed by
the parents in China, where they stress on respect, dependability, appropriate behaviour and
group accomplishment. Additionally, parents in China are more than Canadian parents to employ
physical compulsion, as well as vocal aggression in parent-kid relationship (Liu & Guo, 2010).
Authoritative Parenting Style
Authoritative parents try to guide kid’s actions in a rational and issue-oriented way.
These parents reason with their kids, promote vocal give and take, as well as encourage their kids
to reason autonomously plus to react in prosocial ways. In addition, parents who are authoritative
are efficiently responsive by being affectionate, caring and cheering kid’s personal concerns. The
three elements that the style builds upon include regulation, autonomy, and connection. The
Chinese mother could see themselves as appealing their kids in less self-sufficiency yielding
(that is democratic involvement) plus more restricting setting than it is the case of mothers in
Canada (Rathus & Rinaldi, 2015). The Chinese parents have been found to be less candidly
emotionally expressive of their love as compared to Canadian parents. In addition, Chinese