Abstract
Parental beliefs about play and learning are part of the “belief-context” of early childhood development and can thus make a key difference for the child. Previous studies have focused on cross-cultural comparisons, and therefore have neglected intra-cultural variations. This study sampled 163 Chinese mothers with children aged two to four years old (M = 38.73 months, SD = 4.91) in south-eastern China, using the Chinese Parent Play Beliefs Scale, Home Play Activities Questionnaire and China Developmental Scale for Children. The latent profile analysis identified the three profiles of Chinese mothers: (a) Traditional mothers, who placed higher value on pre-academic activities, but lower value on early play; (b) Contemporary mothers, who placed higher value on early play, but lower value on pre-academic activities; and (c) Eclectic mothers, who placed the highest values on both pre-academic activities and play. The three profiles of mothers’ play beliefs were differentiated by maternal education, frequencies of children’s play and pre-academic activities at home, and children’s early development. Children of Eclectic mothers had better cognitive development than those of Contemporary mothers, and had better socio-emotional and overall development than those of Traditional mothers, even after adjusting for socio-demographic variables.
Keywords
Variations in Chinese Mothers’ Play Beliefs and Their Relation to Early Childhood Outcomes
It is widely believed that young children learn and develop through play (Johnson, Christie, & Yawkey, 1999). However, this belief may be inconsistent with the ones deriving from Confucian heritage culture (CHC), which values diligence, persistence, and academic training (Li, 2012). For instance, cross-culturally comparative studies of play beliefs have repeatedly shown that, compared with their European and American counterparts, Chinese and East Asian parents emphasize getting an academic head start as more important than play, even during early childhood (Farver, Kim, & Lee-Shin, 1995; Huntsinger, Jose, & Larson, 1998; Parmar, Harkness, & Super, 2004). Intra-cultural variations in parental play beliefs have mainly been investigated through detailed ethnographies and observation (Roopnarine, 2015). A notable recent study used a person-centered methodology to profile the concepts of play among American mothers, yielding several meaningful patterns (Fisher, Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, & Gryfe, 2008). Nevertheless, there has been a paucity of research on individual variability in Chinese mothers’ beliefs about young children’s play.
China has been undergoing dramatic socio-cultural and economic changes since the advent of the Open Door Policy, in the 1980s. One effect of China’s increased globalization, economic growth, and number of nuclear families is perhaps that Chinese parental goals have shifted from utilitarian expectations of gaining material and financial benefits from children, to psychological expectations, such as the joy of having a child (Luo, Tamis-LeMonda, & Song, 2013). Meanwhile, a series of recently instituted Early Childhood Education (ECE) reforms have promoted child-centered approaches and ideas imported from the West. Consequently, Chinese parents increasingly believe that play is critical to early child development (Lin & Yawkey, 2013; Rao & Li, 2009). However, socio-economic constraints often make traditional values persist. For example, the one-child policy and the more competitive social environment created by a free market economy have forced some Chinese parents to place greater emphasis on their child’s academic achievement (Luo et al., 2013).
Parental cultural belief systems or ethnotheories (Sigel & McGillicuddy-De Lisi, 2002; Super & Harkness, 2002), have been shown to influence the organization of children’s learning and development. Previous studies have suggested that parents might adopt different patterns of acculturation and adjust their ethnotheories on play when moving from their original culture to a new one (Roopnarine, 2011; Roopnarine & Jin, 2012). Therefore, we expected a similar phenomenon would be observed in non-immigrant contexts, such as Chinese society. Chinese parents have had to reconceptualize their views about play to cope with the tension between their “host” beliefs in Chinese traditional culture and “guest” ECE notions and practices imported from Euro-American countries (Rao, Ng, & Pearson, 2010). Accordingly, we hypothesized that emergent play beliefs would vary from one Chinese mother to another, and that their changing and varying play beliefs would influence child outcomes eventually, as they arranged settings that may support or constrain the child’s play within the “developmental niche” (Super & Harkness, 1986, 2002). This study, therefore, applies a person-centered approach to explore intra-cultural variation in Chinese mothers’ beliefs about play. Accordingly, the following two research questions guide this paper. (a) What profiles emerge among Chinese mothers related to their beliefs about play? (b) How do these profiles relate to early childhood outcomes?
Method
Participants
A total of 163 children and their mothers participated in this study. Participants were solicited through six ECE centers and kindergartens that generally served a middle-class population in Shenzhen, a coastal city in south-eastern China. Of these children, 76 were girls and 87 were boys, with a mean age of 38.73 months (SD = 4.91). Most of the children (77.9%) were the only child in their family. The majority (61.9%) of the sample population had medium-level incomes, relative to local standards. About half of the mothers were university graduates (38.7%) or postgraduates (14.3%); of the rest, 35.5% had a technical college education or a high school education, while 11.5% had a secondary school education or below. Regarding maternal occupation, most of the mothers (61.3%) were full-time employees, while 16.0% were part-time employees, and 22.7% were housewives.
Measures
Four measures were utilized for this study: a demographic survey, a scale assessing mothers’ play beliefs, a scale assessing children’s daily activities, and a comprehensive assessment of child developmental outcomes. The three questionnaires were completed by the mothers, and the developmental assessment was administered individually to the children by the first author and two trained graduate students majoring in ECE or psychology.
Demographic Questionnaire
The demographic survey included four categories of maternal educational attainment (secondary school and below, high school or technological college, university undergraduate, and postgraduate) and three categories for maternal employment status (not working, working part-time, and working full-time). Data on the number of children, the focal child’s age and gender, and household income were also collected.
Chinese Parent Play Beliefs Scale
Mothers’ play beliefs were assessed using a self-report instrument, Chinese Parent Play Beliefs Scale (CPPBS), developed and validated in another study, as part of a larger project (Lin, 2013; Lin & Li, 2018; Rao & Li, 2009). Mothers were presented with a list of 17 children’s activities at home and used a five-point Likert scale (1 = not at all important to 5 = extremely important) to evaluate the importance of each item. For example, “How would you rate rough-and-tumble play in terms of its importance in early childhood?” and “How would you rate learning with Chinese characters and alphabets in terms of its importance in early childhood?” CPPBS involves two subscales: the first subscale (valuing free play) includes nine items (i. e., make believe, exploration, pretending, doodling, riding a tricycle, using playground equipment, rough-and-tumble play, physical games, and home and outing entertainment, etc.); and the second subscale (valuing pre-academics) includes eight items (i. e., parent-child reading, letter naming, numeracy and arithmetic concepts, Chinese characters and alphabets, Three-Character Classic and other Chinese classics, puzzles, jigsaws, educational programs on TV or DVD, etc.). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were .78 and .85, respectively, for the two subscales, and .83 for the total scale. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the construct validity, and internal consistency analysis confirmed the psychometric coherence of each subscale (Lin & Li, 2018).
Home Play Activities Questionnaire
The Home Play Activities Questionnaire adopted the same item list as the CPPBS, and asked mothers to report the child’s engagement in each of 17 activities in their daily life. For example, “How often does the child pretend with funny toys?” and “How often does the child have a book read?” The mother rated the frequency according to the following scale: 1 = less than once a month or never; 2 = once a month; 3 = a few times a month; 4 = about once a week; 5 = two to four times a week; 6 = every day or almost every day; 7 = three times or more a day. Cronbach’s alphas for the two subscales were .71 and .62, respectively.
China Developmental Scale for Children
The China Development Scale for Children (CDSC) is a comprehensive, norm-referenced, developmental assessment for children aged zero to six years old. It was developed and tested by the Psychology Institute of the China Academy of Science, and has been widely used by different researchers in China (Jing et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 1997). It consists of five subscales that yield scores for five development domains: gross motor (40 items), fine motor (38 items), cognitive (40 items), language (41 items), and socio-emotional (39 items). This measure has demonstrated very good short-term test-retest stability (.91) and inter-rater reliability (.98), and high Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients, with values ranging from .73 to .81 in all five subscales (Zhang et al., 2015). Concurrent validity for the CDSC was established by correlation with the Gesell Developmental Schedules (Jing et al., 2014). We tested each child in a quiet room at the center or kindergarten. From the starting-point item, determined by the child’s age, the examiner observed and credited the child’s responses in developmental tasks that tested motor skills, visual/spatial skills, letter/number skills, receptive and expressive skills, social knowledge, adaptive and self-help skills, and so on. The assessment normally took 30–45 minutes.
Analytic Plan
Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used in the present study to identify “unobserved” groups of mothers with sufficiently distinct patterns of play-learning beliefs. A similar analytic strategy has been employed by different researchers for examining potentially heterogeneous groups in a sample (e.g., Cumsille, Darling, & Martínez, 2010; Pastor, Barron, Miller, & Davis, 2007; Wolff, 2010). We used Mplus Version 7.0 to implement the LPA. The mean scores of the two subscales in CPPBS were entered as observed dependent variables, and full information maximum likelihood was used as the estimation method. The posterior probabilities were estimated by Mplus, indicating the stability in the classification of each individual into the different profiles. The best fitting model was selected based on three model-fit indices (Peugh & Fan, 2013): the Bayesian information criterion (BIC; lower value relative to a model with fewer classes is desired), entropy (values closer to 1 indicating better classification of individuals into different latent classes), and the Lo-Mendell-Rubin likelihood ratio test (LMR-LRT; a significant p value indicating that the class model with the number of classes k–1 was rejected in favor of the class model with the number of classes k).
Following the LPA, we examined the differences in demographic characteristics among the three profiles using Chi-Square tests. We further examined and compared the differences across the profiles in children’s daily engagement in play and pre-academic activities and children’s early outcomes, in terms of gross motor, fine motor, cognitive, language, socio-emotional, and composite scores in CDSC, using a series of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). To determine the effect of profiles on child outcomes, other predictive variables (i.e., child sex, number of children, maternal education, household income, and ECE program) were set as covariates in the MANOVA. The age of child was not included as a covariate in MANOVA because the CDSC scores were converted against the norms rather than the raw scores. IBM SPSS 21.0 software was used to produce the statistics.
Results
A series of competing models with different numbers of “latent” classes were estimated. The three-profile model was chosen as the best solution, as it outperformed other models with reference to the model fitting indices (See Table 1). Although the LMR-LRT value was statistically significant (p < .001) for two and three classes, the three-profile model was selected, as it had a lower adjusted BIC value (610.44), higher entropy (.82), and more meaningful patterns. The average probabilities for belonging to each profile in the three-profile model were .87, .99 and .93 respectively, indicating a high stability of the solution.
Latent profile analysis (LPA) model-fit statistics of competing models.
Note. N = 163 mothers. The observed dependent variables were mean scores on valuing of play and mean scores on valuing of pre-academics in Chinese Parent Play Beliefs Scale (CPPBS). Theoretical ranges of the two variables: valuing of play = 1–5; and valuing of pre-academics = 1–5.
aBIC= Bayesian information criterion.
bSample size adjusted BIC (n* = (n + 2) / 24).
cLMR-LRT= Lo-Mendell-Rubin likelihood ratio test.
As shown in Figure 1, Profile 1 (“Traditional mothers”) was characterized by lower scores on valuing of play (M = 3.19, SD = .34) and higher scores on valuing of pre-academics (M = 4.00, SD = .43), representing about 28% of the sample (n = 46). Profile 2 (“Contemporary mothers”) presented an inverse pattern, with higher scores on valuing of play (M = 4.18, SD = .46) and lower scores on valuing of pre-academics (M = 3.12, SD = .50), representing about 28% of the sample (n =46). Profile 3 (“Eclectic mothers”) had the highest scores on both valuing of play (M = 4.25, SD = .35) and valuing of pre-academics (M = 4.35, SD = .34), with 44% of the sample (n =71). To further interpret the three profiles, three t-tests explored whether each profile had rating differences between valuing of play and valuing of pre-academics. The results showed Traditional and Contemporary mothers perceived significant distinctions between play and pre-academics (t (45) = –9.47, p < .001, 95% confidence interval of the difference [–.95, –.62] and t (45) = 11.55, p < .001, 95% confidence interval of the difference [.93, 1.32], respectively), while Eclectic mothers perceived no differences (t (70) = –1.47, p = .07, 95% confidence interval of the difference [–.02, .52]).
Comparisons among the three profiles based on mean scores on valuing of free play and valuing of pre-academic activities (bars represent standard deviation). Note. Profile 1 “Traditional mothers”, n = 46; Profile 2 “Contemporary mothers”, n = 46; Profile 3 “Eclectic mothers”, n = 71.
Chi-Square tests showed that the three profiles of mothers’ play beliefs were not differentiated by sex of child, age of child, single child or not, household income, maternal employment status, or the type of ECE program (private or government-run) the child attended. However, the three profiles differed significantly regarding maternal education (χ2 (6, N = 163) = 13.39, p = .04. Most (71.2%) Eclectic mothers and more than half (57.8%) of Contemporary mothers had a university undergraduate or postgraduate education, compared to only 42.4% of Traditional mothers.
As shown in Table 2, the two one-way ANOVAs revealed significant differences across the three profiles in frequencies of children’s play (F (2, 160) = 13.56, p < .001) and pre-academic activities (F (2, 160) = 10.90, p < .001). Bonferroni post hoc comparisons indicated the children of Contemporary and Eclectic mothers engaged in significantly more play than those of Traditional mothers, but that there was no difference between the children of Eclectic and Contemporary mothers. The children of Eclectic and Traditional mothers engaged in significantly more pre-academic activities than did the children of Contemporary mothers, whereas the children of Eclectic mothers did not differ significantly from those of Traditional mothers in this regard.
Child home activities and development outcomes for the three profiles of maternal play beliefs.
Note. Profile 1 “Traditional mothers”, n = 46; Profile 2 “Contemporary mothers”, n = 46; Profile 3 “Eclectic mothers”, n = 71. Theoretical ranges of the variables: Play activities = 1–7; Pre-academic activities = 1–7; Gross motor = 100±15; Fine motor = 100±15; Cognitive = 100±15; Language = 100±15; Socio-emotional = 100±15.
aPost hoc paired comparison tests significant at the .01 and .05 level, after Bonferroni adjustment, are reported in this column.
bCDSC = China Developmental Scale for Children.
MANOVA indicated the children of the three profiles differed significantly in their gross motor, cognitive, language, socio-emotional development, and overall development (see Table 2). Bonferroni post hoc comparisons showed that children of Eclectic mothers scored significantly higher in gross motor and socio-emotional domains, and in CDSC than did children of Traditional mothers. Children of Eclectic mothers scored significantly higher in cognitive and language development than did children of Contemporary mothers. After setting other predictive variables (child sex, number of children, ECE program, maternal education and employment, and household income) as covariates, there were no significant differences in children’s gross motor (F (2, 153) = 2.90, p = .06) or language (F (2, 153) = 3.14, p = .05) domains. However, children still differed significantly in cognitive (F (2, 153) = 4.77, p = .01) and socio-emotional (F (2,153) = 3.83, p = .03) domains and overall development (F (2, 153) = 4.31, p = .02).
Discussion
Three Profiles of Chinese Mothers’ Play Beliefs
The present study has generated the three subgroups of Chinese mothers based on their distinct profiles of play beliefs. Deeply rooted in CHC, Chinese parents have high expectations of their children’s academic performance, even in the early childhood years (Luo et al., 2013). The identification of Profile 1 (“Traditional mothers”) aligns with prior studies, which have shown that Chinese parents prefer their children to be engaged in well-structured activities for academic preparation, rather than in play or unstructured time (Huntsinger et al., 1998; Pan, 1994; Parmar et al., 2004; Lin & Yawkey, 2013). However, the emergence of Profile 2 (“Contemporary mothers”) and Profile 3 (“Eclectic mothers”) differentiates this study from previous ones. It has long been widely believed that Chinese culture features a rich tradition of highly valuing behavioral control, discipline, conformity and academic training (Li, 2012). This study, however, found that many Chinese mothers regarded play as equally important as or more important than early academic learning. These changing beliefs might reflect a transformation in parents’ beliefs systems (Sigel & McGillicuddy-De Lisi, 2002) and goals for their children (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2008), one that has been brought about by China’s notable economic growth, industrialization, and family life changes in Chinese society (Luo et al., 2013), and ongoing ECE reforms advocating child-centeredness in recent decades (Li & Chen, 2017).
Mothers’ education has been found to be a particularly strong predictor of their beliefs about play and early education (e.g., Fogle & Mendez, 2006; Lin & Yawkey, 2013). In the present study, mothers with higher educational attainment tended to value play, or at least both play and academics, while those with lower attainment education tended to emphasize academics over play. One possible explanation may be that mothers with relatively higher education have had more exposure to Western cultures (Luo et al., 2013). Additionally, higher education levels among mothers might be associated with a greater tendency to reflect on their own parenting (Holden & Hawk, 2003), and to appreciate positive aspects of imported educational ideas. As scholars have observed, the influences of globalization on China intersect with families’ socio-economic circumstances (Luo et al., 2013), and have led to increasingly diversified beliefs and practices (Li & Chen, 2017).
Relation Between Profiles of Maternal Play Beliefs and Child Outcomes
Parental cultural beliefs (or ethnotheories) of play and learning are instantiated in the child’s developmental niche of everyday life (Super & Harkness, 1986, 2002), which is associated with the type, frequency, and intensity of children’s specific activities (Parmar et al., 2004, 2008). We therefore hypothesized that Chinese mothers who endorse pre-academics would be more likely to engage their children in academic activities that could greatly enhance their children’s language and cognitive development. In the same vein, parents who highly valued play would likely allow their children more unstructured time that could enhance their children’s physical and socio-emotional skills.
The data in the present study support our hypotheses. Eclectic and Traditional mothers did report that their children engaged in more pre-academic activities at home than was reported by Contemporary mothers, and Eclectic and Contemporary mothers reported higher frequencies of play than were reported by Traditional mothers. The results are congruent with findings in the literature that the extent to which parents value play determines how they organize their children’s daily settings, thus increasing or decreasing their children’s time spent in specific activities (Huntsinger et al., 1998; Parmar et al., 2004, 2008). As expected, the children of Eclectic mothers performed better in cognitive domains than those of Contemporary mothers, and better in socio-emotional development than those of Traditional mothers, even after adjusting for socio-demographic variables. The results support previous findings on the associations between maternal play beliefs and children’s cognitive and socio-emotional skills (e.g., Fogle & Mendez, 2006; Roopnarine & Jin, 2012). More important, these findings suggest that the profile of mothers who highly valued both play and pre-academic activities were associated with better early childhood outcomes. As argued by some scholars (Fisher et al., 2008), an emphasis on narrowly defined, structured activities and an imbalance between play and structured activities in children’s lives may adversely affect their development. It is noted that the profile of Eclectic mothers, who hold a balanced view of play and early learning, was associated with better children’s outcomes in terms of cognitive, social, and general development. You believe it, you do it, and finally you reap what you sow.
Limitations and Future Directions
The present study is the first empirical investigation using a person-centered methodology to explore intra-cultural variations in Chinese mothers’ beliefs on play. Several limitations must be noted, and should be addressed by future research. First, no participating mothers in this study fit the profile of valuing neither pre-academic activities nor play; there is thus a need for future studies to include lower socio-economic status mothers from less developed regions of China, to enable a more thorough examination of play beliefs in contemporary China. Second, in our study, profiles of maternal play beliefs were not correlated with child age; future studies should include mothers of older children (kindergarteners and even primary pupils), as parents’ attitudes toward play might change over time, especially when their children start to learn academically. Third, previous studies have shown mothers and fathers differ in how they play with their children; future investigation is needed to understand the extent to which Chinese mothers and fathers differ in their play beliefs. Last but not least, our study could not confirm a direct cause-effect relationship between mothers’ play beliefs and child outcomes; further studies, involving larger samples and a longitudinal design, are needed to verify such a relationship, and to better understand why they reap what they believe.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
We wish to express our gratitude to Dr. Weipeng Yang and Ms. Jiahong Zhang, who assisted with part of the data collection and data analysis, and the principals, teachers, parents, and children from the early learning centers and kindergartens that participated in this study.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
