Parental Harsh Discipline and Migrant Children’s Anxiety in China: The Moderating Role of Parental Warmth and Gender

Abstract

The present study examined the moderating effects of both parents’ warmth in the relations between parental harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and migrant children’s anxiety and parent and child gender differences in the moderating mechanism in Chinese society. This study used a sample of 477 elementary school-age children and both their parents in Chinese migrant families. We constructed a Structural Equation Model to explore the relation between parental harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and migrant children’s anxiety and the moderating role of parental warmth. Our findings revealed that maternal but not paternal psychological aggression was found to significantly predict boys’ anxiety. Moreover, maternal warmth exacerbated the relations between paternal corporal punishment and girls’ anxiety. The findings provide partial support for the “healthy context paradox” and highlight the importance of considering how the broader family emotional context may interact with parental harsh discipline to influence child adjustment.

Keywords

psychological aggression corporal punishment parental warmth child anxiety migrant children

Introduction

When developing countries are undergoing industrialization and urbanization, a growing number of rural laborers migrate into cities for better jobs and living conditions. This massive migration from rural to urban areas has occurred in many countries, such as Brazil, India, and Indonesia. Likewise, Chinese society has also undergone rapid economic development and accelerated expansion of urbanization since China adopted the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, resulting in an increase in the number of migrant families in urban areas. By 2019, more than 236 million people migrated from rural to urban areas (National Bureau of Statistics, 2020). In the process of migration, due to a lack of social, economic, and educational resources, some children were left behind in rural areas by their migrant worker parents. According to National Bureau of Statistics (2020), approximately 13.84 million left-behind children lived in rural areas in 2019. However, in recent years, the Chinese government established a series of policies and measures to help migrant families to improve their life quality, such as providing social security services for migrant population and providing educational opportunities for migrant children. Because of these changes, increasing children followed their parents to migrate to urban areas for better educational opportunities, creating a new generation of migrant children. According to the Interim Measure of School Education for Temporary Migrant Children (1998) issued by Chinese National Education Committee and Ministry of Public Security, migrant children refer to children aged 6 to 14 (or 7 to 15) who have left their original residence and migrated to a big city for at least 6 months. According to the most recent statistics, the number of migrant children in 2019 reached 14.27 million (National Bureau of Statistics, 2020).

Compared to left-behind children, migrant children may receive more care and involvement from parents but face more challenges in cities (Ma et al., 2018). Most migrant families may live in poor housing conditions and earn minimum wage (Huang et al., 2018). Research has suggested that Chinese migrant families have less living space per capita than urban non-migrant families, and 24.76% of migrant families (3.70 times than urban non-migrant families) lived in poor housing conditions in 2010 (Lin et al., 2014), and the per capita annual income of urban non-migrant population was 1.43 times more than migrant population in 2016 (National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, 2018). In addition, according to Chinese household registration system (Hukou), Chinese people’s citizenship and resource allocation were determined by household registration. Migrant children are usually registered in rural areas (the place of birth) rather than the city in which they have migrated (Chan & Zhang, 1999; Wang et al., 2020). This registration process may result in Chinese migrant children having no rights to enroll in high-quality public schools or utilize the same health insurance and social welfare provided to urban non-migrant children (Huang, et al., 2018; Lu et al., 2018; Peng, 2019). Although some policies were taken gradually to ensure the health insurance and the social welfare of migrant families in recent years, compared to Chinese urban non-migrant children, Chinese migrant children may be more likely to face and cope with adversity, adapt to the new family, school, and social environments. Therefore, migrant children may be socially excluded, treated unjustly, or discriminated against in urban society (Lu et al., 2018; Wong, Chang et al., 2009). These disadvantaged circumstances and social status may be more likely to make Chinese migrant children feel anxious or insecure about their life, study, and interpersonal relationships (Boelens et al., 2020; Li & Jiang, 2018; Sidhu & Vasireddy, 2020; Zhang et al., 2019). Anxiety represents one of the most prominent and common emotional disorders in migrant children (Liu et al., 2021; Wong, Chang et al., 2009). Using a sample of 19506 students aged 9 to 18, researchers found that Chinese migrant children suffered from more symptoms of anxiety than urban non-migrant children (Liu et al., 2019). According to Sun et al. (2007), 70% of migrant children reported frequent academic anxieties. In addition, approximately 33% of Chinese migrant children reported social anxiety, such as feeling afraid of communicating with others and worrying what other people think of him/her (Lin & Weng, 2004). Numerous studies have demonstrated that children with anxiety in childhood are at higher risk for later adjustment problems, such as depression, conduct disorder, and sleep problems (Bittner et al., 2007; Dyer et al., 2019; Ghandour et al., 2019; Zhu et al., 2019). Therefore, identifying migrant children’s anxiety symptoms and factors related to migrant children’s anxiety may be beneficial in reducing their anxiety and promoting their positive development.

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the relations between parental harsh discipline and child anxiety. For example, Wang, Wang et al., (2016) found that parental aggression and maternal corporal punishment were related to children’s anxiety. A longitudinal study found that parental psychological aggression was significantly predictive of preschoolers’ anxiety (Kwok et al., 2017). In addition, a recent study found that the children who experienced more parental corporal punishment were more likely to be anxious (Liu & Wang, 2020). However, although several studies have demonstrated that children who experience parental harsh discipline (i.e., psychological aggression and corporal punishment) exhibit higher levels of anxiety, most of these studies have focused on Chinese urban non-migrant children rather than migrant children (Lansford et al., 2014; Miller-Perrin et al., 2009; Wang, Wang et al., 2016). Given high economic pressure and social pressure, migrant parents may be more critical, more irritable, and more likely to abandon planful, child-centered parenting behavior (e.g., reasoning) and to rely instead on reactive, parent-centered behaviors, such as psychological aggression and corporal punishment (Deater-Deckard, 1998; Xing et al., 2019). Moreover, in the new urban living and learning environment, migrant children may be in greater need of psychological resources to cope with many new challenges compared to their urban counterparts. In this case, Chinese migrant children are an important population to study due to high exposure to stressful events and lack of psychological resources. Hence, it is necessary to explore the relations between the two most common forms of parental harsh discipline (i.e., psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and children’s anxiety in a sample of Chinese migrant families.

Parental Warmth as a Moderator

Although parental harsh discipline has been found to be related to child anxiety, not all children who experienced parental corporal punishment show anxiety (Lansford et al., 2014; Liu & Wang, 2020; Wang, Wang et al., 2016). Research has suggested the impact of parental discipline on child outcomes is dependent upon a number of factors, such as the context in which parental harsh discipline occurs (Stacks et al., 2009). According to Baumrind (1973), parental harsh discipline may occur in a broader emotional context. For example, some parents may use harsh discipline toward their children in a positive emotional context, while some other parents’ harsh discipline may occur in a harsh or hostile context. The broader emotional context may affect the effects of parental harsh discipline by changing the nature of parent–child relationships or children’s socialization will. In addition, Cohen and Will’s (1985) stress-buffering model states that supportive relationships (e.g., support/warmth characterized by acceptance, understanding, and responsiveness) may buffer the negative impact of stressful events (e.g., harsh discipline). Moreover, parent–child relationships that are characterized by warmth may reflect a key element in the promotion of secure attachment relationships, and the effect of harsh parental discipline on child anxiety may be buffered among those with secure attachment. Based on the above analyses, we hypothesized that parental warmth, as a crucial emotional context, will moderate the relations between harsh parental discipline and child anxiety, such that compared to children in low levels of parental warmth, the negative effect of harsh parental discipline on child anxiety will be buffered for children in high levels of parental warmth. However, there is not consistent evidence of this across cultures and populations (Lansford et al., 2014). Thus, it is necessary to explore what role does parental warmth may play in the relations between parental harsh discipline and child anxiety in China. Especially, compared with Chinese urban non-migrant children, migrant children face more pressure in the new school and social environment, so parents’ emotional warmth in the family may be more important for migrant children (Guo & Zhao, 2019; Ma et al., 2018). Accordingly, parental warmth may play an important role in buffering the negative effects of parental harsh discipline on migrant children’s anxiety.

Moreover, family systems theory conceptualizes the family as an organized whole made up of interconnected interdependent subsystems, all parts of the family system are interconnected (Cox & Paley, 1997). Accordingly, one parent’s warmth may not only affect the relations between their own harsh discipline and children’s anxiety, but also affect the relations between the other parent’s harsh discipline and children’s anxiety. The main aim of this study is to explore this issue. Investigation of this issue would help us understand the role of the broader family emotional context in the development of child anxiety.

Parent and Child Gender Differences in the Moderating Mechanism

Previous studies have suggested that parental harsh parenting and children’s anxiety may vary systematically based on parent and child gender. Mothers showed more harsh discipline and warmth toward children than fathers (Quach et al., 2015; Wang & Liu, 2018). Boys experienced more parental harsh discipline but displayed less anxiety than girls (McKee et al., 2007; Wang & Liu, 2014, 2018; Wang, Wang et al., 2016; Zhao et al., 2012). Moreover, the same-gender modeling hypothesis suggests that the discipline effect is maximized in same-gender parent–child dyads (i.e., father–son dyads and mother–daughter dyads) (Deater-Deckard & Dodge, 1997). For example, Chang et al. (2003) found that paternal harsh parenting affected sons’ aggression more than daughters’ aggression, whereas maternal harsh parenting affected neither. Although previous studies have documented the parent and/or child gender differences in parental harsh discipline and warmth, child anxiety, and the relations between harsh discipline and child adjustment, little research has examined whether the moderating effects of parental warmth on the relations between parental harsh discipline and children’s anxiety differ by parent and child gender. Based on the above analyses, it is necessary to explore the parent and child gender differences in the moderating mechanism, although whether the proposed moderation model may differ by parent and child gender is exploratory.

The Current Study

To summarize, the current study collected data from a large sample of Chinese mothers and fathers with migrant children and examined the moderating effect of both parents’ warmth in the relation between parental harsh discipline and migrant children’s anxiety and parent and child gender differences in the moderating mechanism. First, it was anticipated that both parental psychological aggression and corporal punishment were correlated with Chinese migrant children’s anxiety. Second, we expected that one parent’s warmth would moderate the links between his/her own and the other parent’s harsh discipline and Chinese migrant children’s anxiety. However, we did not draw a strong hypothesis about gender differences in the moderating mechanism, given that empirical evidence regarding this topic was limited and scarce.

Methods

Participants

A total of 490 family triads with at least one migrant child in grades 1–3 were enrolled in the study. Further, 13 families were excluded because of large missing data on variables of interest, which resulted in a final sample of 477 family triads with migrant children. Among these migrant families, over three-fourths (78.83%; n = 376) migrated from another city in Shandong province to the Jinan city, while less than a quarter (21.17%; n = 101) migrated from other provinces to the Jinan city. All participants were recruited as couples. That is, both the father and mother of the same child provided data for the study. Thus, a total of 954 parents completed the questionnaires. The majority of parents and children were of the Han ethnicity (98.32%), and the mother tongue of all families was Chinese. Children were on average 8.25 years of age, ranging from 7 to 11 (SD = 0.92), and 58.5% were boys. The mean age of the fathers and mothers was 36.24 years (SD = 5.03, age-range = 28–55 years) and 35.25 years (SD = 5.55, age-range = 22–51 years). In terms of employment, most of fathers and mothers were at working-class: nearly 0.42% of the fathers and 15.31% of the mothers were out of work, 86.37% of the fathers and 75.69% of the mothers were employed at working-class jobs (e.g., factory workers), and approximately 13.22% of the fathers and 9.02% of the mothers held a professional or technical position (e.g., teachers, doctors, engineers). Nearly 46.3% of the fathers and 54.5% of the mothers only completed at most a junior-high-school education, 36.5% of the fathers and 32.9% of the mothers completed high school, and approximately 17.2% of the fathers and 12.6% of the mothers had completed at least some college education.

Procedures

Family triads with migrant children were recruited from one public primary school in the city of Jinan, located in Shandong Province in eastern China. All the children in the current study come from a new school which was established specially for migrant children by Jinan Municipal Government in August 2016. In 2016, all migrant school-age children who cannot attend public schools due to household registration system (Hukou) in Jinan were allowed to came to this school to be educated. During parent meetings, the questionnaires were administered to the fathers and the mothers on two separate days. Each parent received a gift worth ¥20 when they completed surveys. All the procedures for this study were conducted under the approval and direction of the Institutional Review Board at Shandong Normal University.

Measures

Children’s anxiety.

The 38-item Chinese version of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale was used to assess children’s anxiety (SCAS-P; Spence, 1997, 1999; Wang, Meng, et al., 2016). Fathers and mothers reported children’s anxiety respectively. The scale was given on a 4-point scale from 0 (never) to 3 (always). Higher scores indicated a higher level of child anxiety. There was no significant difference but significant correlation between father-report and mother-report child anxiety (t = –0.77, p > 0.05; r = .36, p < 0.001). Thus, father-and mother-report scales were averaged to form the composite scores for children’s anxiety. Previous studies have shown that this scale has high reliability and validity in Chinese cultural background (Li et al., 2016; Wang, Meng, et al., 2016). In the present study, the Cronbach’s alphas for mothers’ reports and fathers’ reports were .86 and .88, respectively.

Parental harsh discipline.

A Chinese version of the Parent–Child Conflict Tactics Scales was used to assess parental discipline strategies (CTSPC; Leung et al., 2008; Straus et al., 1998). There were five subscales in CTSPC: Nonviolent Discipline (4 items), Psychological Aggression (5 items), Corporal Punishment (6 items), Severe Physical Abuse (3 items), and Very Severe Physical Abuse (4 items), of which the psychological aggression subscale and the corporal punishment subscale were used in the current study. Both fathers and mothers responded to CTSPC items separately to indicate how often they engaged in the two discipline strategies during the previous half year. The total scores for psychological aggression and corporal punishment inflicted by parents were computed separately by summing the median number of times parents scored on each subscale items (never = 0, once = 1, twice = 2, 3–5 times = 4, 6–10 times = 8, 11–20 times = 15, more than 20 times = 25). It has been found that this scale has acceptable reliability and validity in China (Liu & Wang, 2018; Wang et al., 2019; Wang & Liu, 2018; Wong, Chen, et al., 2009). In the present study, the Cronbach’s alphas for the psychological aggression subscale were .72 and .74 for father-reports and mother-reports, respectively. For corporal punishment subscale, the Cronbach’s alpha for the father and mother reports were .74 and .73, respectively.

Parental warmth.

The Chinese version of Egna Minnen Beträffende Uppfostran (EMBU) was used to assess rearing practices of both parents (Muris et al., 2003; Wang et al., 2018). The 40-item EMBU includes four subscales: Emotional Warmth, Rejection, Overprotection, and Anxious Rearing, while only the emotional warmth subscale (10 items) was of interest in this study. Fathers and mothers separately rated how often they show specific behaviors toward their children in the previous half year (e.g., I will tell my child that I love him/her) on a 4-point scale from 0 (never) to 3 (always), with higher scores indicating greater parental warmth toward the children. In the current study, the Cronbach’s alphas for the Emotional Warmth subscale were .84 for fathers and .82 for mothers, respectively.

Data Analyses

Prior to analyzing the data, we examined all data for completeness. Mean substitution was used to impute values for any missing items given that the percent of respondents with missing items is only 0.78%. Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to test the potential moderating roles of parental warmth (maternal warmth, paternal warmth) in the relations between parental harsh discipline and children’s anxiety. Model fit was evaluated using a combination of the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), and Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI). Kline (2005) suggested that model fit is acceptable when CFI > .90, TLI > .90, and RMSEA ≤ .08. Then, we performed multiple-group structural equation modeling analyses to test child gender differences in the relations between parental harsh discipline and children anxiety. In the context of multiple-group SEM, we started with all of the paths constrained to be equal across boys and girls and then released paths based on modification indices and conduct chi-square difference tests. Socioeconomic status (SES) was added as a covariate in the model because SES is an important factor that influences children anxiety (Merz et al., 2017). All paths in the model were tested for significance using the bootstrapping procedure, with 5000 cases of resampling incorporated in AMOS. If significant parental harsh discipline × parental warmth was found, the follow-up simple slope test recommended by Holmbeck (2002) was adopted to test the nature of the interaction. All the predictors were mean-centered in the analysis. The SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 24.0 were used for analyses.

Results

Preliminary Analyses

Table 1 provided the descriptive statistics and the intercorrelations among all study variable separately for boys and girls. Analyses of skewness and kurtosis indicated that both parental warmth and parental psychological aggression were approximately normally distributed (skewness = –0.48–1.04, kurtosis = –0.33–1.28), while both paternal corporal punishment and maternal corporal punishment were positively skewed and leptokurtotic (skewness = 2.46 and 1.47, kurtosis = 8.38 and 2.04). According to Tabachnick and Fidell (2007), given the large sample size of the current study, we used untransformed data in the statistical analyses. Independent-sample t-test revealed that compared to girls, boys were more likely to experience paternal psychological aggression (t = 2.36, p < .05) and corporal punishment (t = 3.74, p < .01). However, the child gender differences were nonsignificant for maternal psychological aggression and corporal punishment, maternal and paternal warmth, and children’s anxiety (ts < 1.31, ps > .05). Compared to fathers, mothers used more psychological aggression, corporal punishment, and warmth toward their boys and girls (ts > 2.13, ps < .05). Both mothers and fathers reported significantly more frequent use of psychological aggression than corporal punishment (ts > 15.70, ps < 0.001).

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics and Correlations among the Study Variables.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	M	SD
1 PPA	–	.15*	.46***	.15*	–.13	–.11	.14	4.62	4.26
2 MPA	.25***	–	.19**	.58***	–.12	.02	.16*	6.88	5.57
3 PCP	.63***	.18**	–	.23**	–.13	–.13	.07	1.70	2.75
4 MCP	.25***	.62***	.22***	–	–.12	–.13	.13	3.40	4.13
5 Paternal warmth	–.19**	–.24***	–.10	–.18**	–	.12	–.11	32.49	4.48
6 Maternal warmth	–.16**	–.22***	–.22***	–.14*	.16**	–	–.14*	31.83	4.93
7 Children’s anxiety	.12*	.22***	.05	.14*	–.14*	–.07	–	17.64	8.11
M	5.64	6.68	2.88	3.61	32.35	31.79	16.64	–	–
SD	4.93	4.98	4.11	3.96	4.55	4.97	8.38	–	–

Note. Correlations above the diagonal are for girls and those below are for boys. Maternal psychological aggression (MPA); maternal corporal punishment (MCP); paternal psychological aggression (PPA); paternal corporal punishment (PCP).

*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

As shown in Table 1, for both boys and girls, there were significantly positive correlations among paternal and maternal psychological aggression and corporal punishment. Moreover, paternal psychological aggression, maternal psychological aggression, and maternal corporal punishment were significantly and positively related to boys’ anxiety, while for girls, only maternal psychological aggression was significantly and positively related to their anxiety. For boys, with some exceptions, the correlations between parental warmth and parental harsh discipline (psychological aggression, corporal punishment) were significant and in the expected direction. However, there were no significant relations between parental warmth and parental harsh discipline for girls. A significantly positive correlation between paternal warmth and maternal warmth was found for boys but not for girls. In addition, maternal warmth was correlated to boys’ anxiety, while paternal warmth was correlated to girls’ anxiety.

Structural Equation Modeling Analyses

Parental harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment), parental warmth, and children anxiety in the model were conducted to examine the direct effect of parental harsh discipline and parental warmth on children anxiety as observed variables. In addition, the interactions between parental harsh discipline (psychological aggression/corporal punishment) and parental warmth were used to explore the moderating effect of parental warmth. According to family systems theory, one parent’s positive and negative parenting behavior may occur in the context of the other parent’s parenting behavior, so we added a series of correlations among paternal harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment), maternal harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment), paternal warmth, and maternal warmth in the model.

The hypothesized models presented acceptable fits to the data, χ²/df = 1.62, RMSEA = 0.04, CFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.92. Multiple-group models comparison indicated that significant differences were found between the fully constrained and unconstrained models for the model, ∇χ²s/dfs > 3.89, p < 0.001, indicating that the relations between parental harsh discipline and children anxiety were significantly different across boys and girls. The specific results are shown as follows.

Maternal warmth as a moderator of the relations between maternal harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and children’s anxiety.

As shown in Table 2, there was only maternal psychological aggression significantly predicted boys’ anxiety. However, the main effect of maternal warmth and the interaction between maternal harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and maternal warmth were nonsignificant, suggesting that maternal warmth failed to moderate the relations between their own harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and children’s anxiety.

Table 2.

Results of Structural Equation Modeling.

	β	P-value
SES ↓ Children Anxiety	.05/–.07	.38/.30
MPA ↓ Children Anxiety	.19*/.11	.01/.25
PPA ↓ Children Anxiety	.11/.14	.17/.08
MCP ↓ Children Anxiety	.05/.07	.53/.48
PCP ↓ Children Anxiety	–.08/–.06	.31/.55
Maternal Warmth ↓ Children Anxiety	–.11/.05	.07/.54
Paternal Warmth ↓ Children Anxiety	–.02/–.17*	.71/.04
MPA × Maternal Warmth ↓ Children Anxiety	–.03/.04	.67/.69
MCP × Maternal Warmth ↓ Children Anxiety	.12/–.01	.13/.96
PPA × Paternal Warmth ↓ Children Anxiety	.14/.06	.09/.52
PCP × Paternal Warmth ↓ Children Anxiety	–.12/–.11	.12/.32
MPA × Paternal Warmth ↓ Children Anxiety	.16/–.13	.06/.19
MCP × Paternal Warmth ↓ Children Anxiety	–.03/.14	.72/.13
PPA × Maternal Warmth ↓ Children Anxiety	–.05/–.08	.57/.37
PCP × Maternal Warmth ↓ Children Anxiety	.01/.23*	.87/.02

Notes. β and p on the left of “/” are for boys and those on the right are for girls.

MPA: Maternal psychological aggression; MCP: Maternal corporal punishment; PPA: Paternal psychological aggression; PCP: Paternal corporal punishment.

*p < .05.

Paternal warmth as a moderator of the relations between paternal harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and children’s anxiety.

Results indicated that the main effect of paternal warmth was significant only for girls rather than boys, but the main effects of paternal harsh discipline and its interactions with paternal warmth failed to reach significance for all children. Thus, paternal warmth did not moderate the relations between their own harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and children’s anxiety (see Table 2).

Paternal warmth as a moderator of the relations between maternal psychological aggression and children’s anxiety.

As shown in Table 2, for boys, the main effect of maternal psychological aggression was statistically significant. However, the main effect of paternal warmth and the interaction effects of maternal psychological aggression and paternal warmth were nonsignificant, indicating that paternal warmth failed to moderate the relation between maternal psychological aggression and boys’ anxiety.

For girls, results showed that the main effects of paternal warmth were statistically significant. However, the main effect of maternal psychological aggression and its interaction with paternal warmth failed to reach significance, indicating that paternal warmth did not significantly moderate the relation between maternal psychological aggression and girls’ anxiety.

Paternal warmth as a moderator of the relations between maternal corporal punishment and children’s anxiety.

Regarding the moderating effects of paternal warmth on the relation between maternal corporal punishment and boys’ anxiety, results indicated that both the main effect and the interaction effect of maternal corporal punishment and paternal warmth were nonsignificant, suggesting that paternal warmth failed to moderate the relation between maternal corporal punishment and boys’ anxiety.

As for girls, although the main effect of paternal warmth was significant, neither the main effect of maternal corporal punishment nor the interaction effects between maternal corporal punishment and paternal warmth were statistically significant, indicating that the relation between maternal corporal punishment and girls’ anxiety was not moderated by paternal warmth (see Table 2).

Maternal warmth as a moderator of the relations between paternal psychological aggression and children’s anxiety.

The results showed that, for both boys and girls, the main effects and the interaction of paternal psychological aggression and maternal warmth were nonsignificant, indicating that maternal warmth did not moderate the relations between paternal psychological aggression and children’s anxiety (see Table 2).

Maternal warmth as a moderator of the relations between paternal corporal punishment and children’s anxiety.

As shown in Table 2, for boys, both the main effect and the interaction of paternal corporal punishment and maternal warmth did not reach significance. Thus, maternal warmth did not moderate the relation between paternal corporal punishment and boys’ anxiety.

However, for girls, results revealed that the interaction effects of maternal warmth and paternal corporal punishment was statistically significant, indicating that maternal warmth significantly moderated the relation between paternal corporal punishment and girls’ anxiety. The results of follow-up simple slope analysis demonstrated that maternal warmth exacerbated the relations between paternal corporal punishment and girls’ anxiety. As shown in Figure 1, the effect of paternal corporal punishment on girls’ anxiety in the high maternal warmth group (simple slope = 0.91, t = 2.31, p < .05) was exacerbated by maternal warmth, while maternal warmth buffered the effect of paternal corporal punishment on children anxiety for girls with low maternal warmth (simple slope = –0.25, t = –.88, p > .05).

Figure 1.

Interactions Between Paternal Corporal Punishment and Maternal Warmth in Predicting Girls’ Anxiety.

Discussion

The present study expanded on previous research by examining the relations between both maternal and paternal harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and migrant children’s anxiety and the moderating role of both parents’ warmth and child gender in Chinese societies. The findings showed that maternal psychological aggression significantly and positively predicted boys’ anxiety rather than girls’ anxiety, while maternal corporal punishment failed to predict children’s anxiety. Neither paternal psychological aggression nor paternal corporal punishment significantly predicted boys’ and girls’ anxiety. Moreover, maternal warmth exacerbated the relation between paternal corporal punishment and girls’ anxiety. These aspects of the results will be discussed below.

In the current study, maternal but not paternal psychological aggression were found to predict boys’ anxiety. One possible explanation for the differential impacts of Chinese maternal and paternal harsh discipline may be related to the proverb “stern father and loving mother” emphasized in traditional Chinese culture (Lau et al., 1990). As indicated by this Chinese proverb, fathers should be strict and stern, while mothers should be kind, affable, and gentle in Chinese families. Therefore, children may be more likely to perceive their mothers’ but not fathers’ harsh discipline as nonnormative and thus interpret their mothers’ harsh discipline as rejection or withdrawal of love (Wang, Wang et al., 2016). According to parental acceptance–rejection theory, children who experience maternal rejection are likely to feel anxious (Rohner, 2004; Rohner et al., 2005). Moreover, this finding may also be explained by the fact that mothers are generally the primary caregivers of their children despite fathers’ increasing involvement with children in China (Chuang & Su, 2008; Wong, Chen, et al., 2009). Especially for migrant families, migrant fathers may spend more time engaging in out-of-home working activities because of high economic pressure (Ying et al., 2019), which limit the time that migrant fathers can spend with their children. Compared to fathers, a higher level of caregiving involvement of Chinese migrant mothers may lead them to implement more harsh discipline toward their children and create more opportunity for maternal influence on children’s anxiety (Fu et al., 2019; Meunier et al., 2012; Wang & Liu, 2014).

As researchers have begun to explore the interactions between positive parenting and negative parenting, lively debates regarding the moderating role of positive parenting (e.g., parental warmth) in the relations between parental harsh discipline and child adjustment have emerged. Specifically, some researchers reported that the negative impact of parental harsh discipline on child adjustment may be buffered by positive parenting including parental warmth (Deater-Deckard & Dodge, 1997; McKee et al., 2007; McLoyd & Smith, 2002). For example, McKee et al. (2007) found that the negative effect of paternal/maternal corporal punishment on children internalizing problems can be buffered by their own warmth. Similarly, McLoyd and Smith (2002) found that maternal warmth maybe buffered the relations between maternal corporal punishment and child internalizing problems. However, several recent studies in this area have found that parental warmth failed to moderate the negative impact of parental harsh discipline on child adjustment (Stacks et al., 2009; Wang & Kenny, 2014; Xing & Wang, 2017). For example, Stacks et al. (2009) found that maternal warmth did not significantly moderate the relation between maternal corporal punishment and child internalizing problems. In addition, Wang and Kenny (2014) found that parental warmth failed to moderate the negative effect of parental corporal punishment on child internalizing problems.

Inconsistent with previous studies and our hypotheses, interestingly, we found that maternal warmth exacerbated rather than buffered the relations between paternal corporal punishment and girl’s anxiety. One possible explanation may be that migrant children may receive less emotional support and warmth than urban non-migrant children (Wu et al., 2015; Wu et al., 2012). Thus, in migrant families, low levels of maternal warmth may be not enough to buffer the relations between paternal corporal punishment and girls’ anxiety. On the contrary, in a low-warmth overall family context, the relatively higher maternal warmth may intensify the comparison between paternal corporal punishment and maternal warmth. Girls experiencing higher maternal warmth were more likely to regard paternal corporal punishment as rejection, and thus felt more anxious than those girls experiencing lower maternal warmth. To some extent, this finding supported the “healthy context paradox” in family contexts, which initially states that the negative impact of victimization may be especially damaging in healthy school contexts where the overall level of victimization is low (Huitsing et al., 2019; Salmivalli, 2018). Specifically, in the present study, the negative effects of paternal corporal punishment on migrant girls’ anxiety were more likely to be intensified in the healthy family contexts (high maternal warmth).

Notably, we found that totally mothers’ warmth failed to impact the relations between their own harsh discipline and migrant girls’ anxiety, but exacerbated the relation between their partner’s harsh discipline and girls’ anxiety. First, this finding suggests that “healthy context paradox” may be more likely to be reflected in the process of comparing two parents’ behavior but not comparing one parent’s positive and negative behavior. Second, this finding provided some evidence for that “give a slap and give a jujube” (a Chinese proverb, referring to parental “carrot and stick” behavior that parents compensate for their own harsh discipline by giving warmth toward children) may be a useless parenting behavior. Meanwhile, “one parent gives a slap and the other parent gives a jujube” (which means that one parent shows warmth while the other parent shows harsh tactics to children in a family) may be detrimental for migrant children’s anxiety. Third, the finding that one parent’s (maternal) warmth moderated the relations between the other parent’s (paternal) harsh discipline and migrant children’s anxiety also provided support for the family systems theory (Cox & Paley, 1997), which posits that all parts of the family system are interrelated and interdependent, the linkage between two family members (e.g., one parent and the child) may be influenced by another family member (e.g., the other parent) within the family.

Furthermore, the present study found that the moderating role of parental warmth differed by parent and child gender. Specifically, the link of paternal corporal punishment and girls’ anxiety was exacerbated by maternal warmth. One possible explanation for the gender difference is that in traditional Chinese culture, fathers are more involved in disciplining their sons but tend to leave the disciplinary issues of their daughters to mothers (Chang et al., 2003; Chen et al., 2002). Within this gender-role context, girls may perceive mother’s harsh discipline rather than father’s harsh discipline as more normative and reasonable. When father’s harsh discipline occurred in a healthy context full of high warmth provided by mother, the comparison between mother’s warmth and father’s harsh discipline may be aggravated. Hence, father’s harsh discipline may be more destructive to girls’ psychological adaptations (e.g., causing girls’ anxiety). That is, “healthy context paradox” may be more likely to occur when the healthy context was provided by same-gender parent while the unhealthy context was provided by opposite-gender parent.

Another aspect that deserves attention is that maternal warmth exacerbated the relations between paternal corporal punishment (rather than paternal psychological aggression) and girls’ anxiety. It may be that as this study and previous studies suggested, fathers reported less harsh discipline than mothers (Quach et al., 2015; Wang & Liu, 2014) and used less harsh discipline toward girls than boys (McKee et al., 2007; Straus & Stewart, 1999; Wang & Liu, 2014). In the context of fathers’ less frequent use of harsh discipline toward girls, the severity of harsh discipline may be more likely to be of concern to girls. Girls may be more likely to compare maternal warmth with the more severe form of harsh discipline—corporal punishment, and thus perceive paternal corporal punishment as father’s rejection, which may exacerbate the relations between paternal corporal punishment and girls’ anxiety.

Limitations

Several limitations should be noted in the current study. First, because most of the children were too young to do the questionnaires, all study measures relied on parent-report data, which may inflate some of the associations among variables or obtain inaccurate information due to social desirability bias. Future research would benefit from including observers’ and partners’ reports of harsh discipline and warmth, and teachers’ and children’s oral reports of child anxiety. Second, most of the participants came from Chinese two-parent and working-class migrant families; thus, caution must be taken when generalizing the findings to families from different social and cultural backgrounds and family constellations. Finally, due to the cross-sectional design of the current study, the causal directions of relations among variables were not examined. Longitudinal designs are needed to disentangle the temporal order of the association between parental harsh discipline, parental warmth, and migrant children’s anxiety.

Strengths and Conclusion

Despite these limitations, the results of the current study have several valuable information and practical implications. First, as far as we know, this is the first study to examine the moderating effect of both parents’ warmth in the relations between both parents’ harsh discipline and children’s anxiety in Chinese migrant families. We found that maternal warmth exacerbated the relations between paternal corporal punishment and girls’ anxiety. These findings provided an important supplement and extension to the family systems theory and “healthy context paradox”. Moreover, although we found the exacerbating effects of high maternal warmth, we cannot prevent mothers from giving warmth to their children due to the beneficial effects of parental warmth on a number of development indicators (including anxiety). Intervening in paternal corporal punishment seems important for reducing migrant girls’ anxiety in conditions of higher maternal warmth. In addition, the moderating effects of parental warmth were found to be different across the gender of parent and child. These results not only highlight the need to consider both parent’s and child’s gender as moderators of the parent–child relation but also suggest that it seems important to implement gender-differentiated interventions to address the impact of parenting on children’s anxiety.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the children, parents, and teachers who participated or contributed to this project.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31800939).

ORCID iD

Meifang Wang

Author Biography

Li Liu, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Shandong Normal University. She received her PhD in education from Shandong Normal University. Her research interests include personality and social development of children and adolescents, children and adolescents’ school adjustment, and the relations between family and children and adolescents’ development.

Peixin Zhai is an undergraduate in the Department of Psychology at Shandong Normal University. His research interest is family violence and socioemotional development of children and adolescence.

Meifang Wang, PhD, is a professor in the College of Elementary Education at Capital Normal University. She received her PhD in education from Beijing Normal University. Her research interests include, family and children’s social and cognitive development, children and adolescence’s school adjustment, the development and training of children and adolescence’s social capability, family violence.

References

Baumrind

(1973). The development of instrumental competence through socialization . University of Minnesota Press

Bittner

, Egger

H. L.

, Erkanli

, Jane Costello

, Foley

D. L.

, & Angold

(2007). What do childhood anxiety disorders predict? Journal of Child Psychology and psychiatry , 48, 1174–1183.

Boelens

, Raat

, Yang-Huang

, Schouten

G. M.

, Grieken

, & Jansen

(2020). Independent contributions of family and neighbourhood indicators of socioeconomic status and migrant status to risk of mental health problems in 4–12 year old children. SSM - Population Health , 12, 1–7.

Chan

K. W.

, & Zhang

(1999). The hukou system and rural–urban migration in China: Processes and changes. China Quarterly , 160, 818–855.

Chang

, Schwartz

, Dodge

K. A.

, & McBride-Chang

(2003). Harsh Parenting in Relation to Child Emotion Regulation and Aggression. Journal of Family Psychology , 17, 598–606.

Chen

, Wang

, Chen

, & Liu

(2002). Noncompliance and child-rearing attitudes as predictors of aggressive behaviour: A longitudinal study in Chinese children. International Journal of Behavioral Development , 26, 225–233.

Chinese National Education Committee, & Ministry of Public Security. (1998). Interim Measure of School Education for Temporary Migrant Children . China Government Printing Office.

Chuang

S. S.

, & Su

(2008). Transcending confucian teachings on fathering: A sign of the times or acculturation? Lexington.

Cohen

, & Wills

T. A.

(1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin , 98, 310–357.

10.

Cox

M. J.

, & Paley

(1997). Families as systems. Annual Review of Psychology , 48, 243–267.

11.

Deater-Deckard

(1998). Parenting stress and child adjustment: Some old hypothesis and new questions. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice , 5, 314–332.

12.

Deater-Deckard

, & Dodge

K. A.

(1997). Externalizing behavior problems and discipline revisited: Nonlinear effects and variation by culture, context, and gender. Psychological Inquiry , 8, 161–175.

13.

Dyer

M. L.

, Easey

K. E.

, Heron

, Hickman

, & Munafò

M. R.

(2019). Associations of child and adolescent anxiety with later alcohol use and disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Addiction , 114, 968–982.

14.

, Niu

, & Wang

(2019). Parental corporal punishment and children’s problem behaviors: The moderating effects of parental inductive reasoning in China. Children and Youth Services Review , 99, 1–9.

15.

Ghandour

R. M.

, Sherman

L. J.

, Vladutiu

C. J.

, Ali

M. M.

, Lynch

S. E.

, Bitsko

R. H.

, & Blumberg

S. J.

(2019). Prevalence and Treatment of Depression, Anxiety, and Conduct Problems in US Children. The Journal of Pediatrics , 206, 256–267.

16.

Guo

, & Zhao

(2019). The impact of Chinese Hukou reforms on migrant students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. Children and Youth Services Review , 101, 341–351.

17.

Holmbeck

G. N.

(2002). Post-hoc probing of significant moderational and mediational effects in studies of pediatric populations. Journal of Pediatric Psychology: Special Issue on Methodology and Design , 27, 87–96.

18.

Huang

, Song

, Tao

, & Liang

(2018). Migration, family arrangement, and Children’s health in China. Child Development , 89, 74–90.

19.

Huitsing

, Lodder

G. M. A.

, Oldenburg

, Schacter

H. L.

, Salmivalli

, Juvonen

, & Veenstra

(2019). The healthy context paradox: Victims’ adjustment during an anti-bullying intervention. Journal of Child and Family Studies , 28, 2499–2509.

20.

Kline

R. B.

(2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling . Guilford.

21.

Kwok

S. Y. C. L.

, Gu

, & Cheung

A. P. S.

(2017). A longitudinal study of the role of children’s altruism and forgiveness in the relation between parental aggressive discipline and anxiety of preschoolers in China. Child Abuse & Neglect , 65, 236–247.

22.

Lansford

J. E.

, Sharma

, Malone

P. S.

, Woodlief

, Dodge

K. A.

, Oburu

, Pastorelli

, Skinner

A. T.

, Sorbring

, Tapanya

, Tirado

L. M. U.

, Zelli

, Al-Hassan

S. M.

, Alampay

L. P.

, Bacchini

, Bombi

A. S.

, Bornstein

M. H.

, Chang

, Deater-Deckard

, & Giunta

L. D.

(2014). Corporal punishment, maternal warmth, and child adjustment: A longitudinal study in eight countries. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology , 43, 670–685.

23.

Lau

, Lew

W. J. F.

, Hau

, Cheung

P. C.

, & Berndt

T. J.

(1990). Relations among perceived parental control, warmth, indulgence, and family harmony of Chinese in mainland China. Developmental Psychology , 26, 674–677.

24.

Leung

P. W. S.

, Wong

W. C. W.

, Chen

W. Q.

, & Tang

(2008). Prevalence and determinants of child maltreatment among high school students in Southern China: A large scale school based survey. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health , 2, 1–8.

25.

, & Jiang

(2018). Social exclusion, sense of school belonging and mental health of migrant children in China: A structural equation modeling analysis. Children and Youth Services Review , 89, 6–12.

26.

J. B.

, Delvecchio

, Di Riso

, Nie

Y. G.

, & Lis

(2016). The parent-version of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS-P) in Chinese and Italian community samples: Validation and cross-cultural comparison. Child Psychiatry & Human Development , 47, 369–383.

27.

Lin

, Zhu

, Liang

, & Xiao

(2014). The spatial patterns of housing conditions of the floating population in China based on the sixth census data. Geographical Research , 33(5), 887–898.

28.

Lin

, & Weng

(2004). Investigation on the psychological wellbeing of junior middle school student in migrant schools. Chinese Mental Health Journal , 18,116.

29.

Liu

, Li

, Zheng

, & Wang

(2021). Intergenerational transmission of anxiety in Chinese migrant families: The mediating role of parents’ perceptions of coparenting. Journal of Affective Disorders , 280, 287–294.

30.

Liu

, & Wang

(2018). Parental harsh discipline and adolescent problem behavior in China: Perceived normativeness as a moderator. Child Abuse & Neglect , 86, 1–9.

31.

Liu

, & Wang

(2020). Parental corporal punishment and child anxiety in China: The moderating role of HPA-axis Activity. Journal of Affective Disorders , 273, 500–507.

32.

Liu

, Shi

, Zhang

, Zhu

, li

, & Zhang

(2019). Survey on Mental Health of Rural Children Left-behind and In Migration. In X. Fu, K. Zhang, X. Chen & Z. Chen (Eds), Blue Book of mental health: Report on National Mental Health Development in China (2017–2018) (pp. 187–219). Social Sciences Academic Press.

33.

, Wang

, Chai

, Wang

, Li

, & Zhou

(2018). Mental health status, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors of migrant children in eastern coastal China in comparison to urban children: A cross-sectional survey. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health , 12, 1–7.

34.

, Hou

, Huang

, Wang

, Li

, Zhou

, & Du

(2018). Educational inequality and achievement disparity: An empirical study of migrant children in China. Children and Youth Services Review , 87, 145–153.

35.

McKee

, Roland

, Coffelt

, Olson

A. L.

, Forehand

, Massari

, Jones

, Gaffney

C. A.

, & Zens

M. S.

(2007). Harsh discipline and child problem behaviors: The roles of positive parenting and gender. Journal of Family Violence , 22, 187–196.

36.

McLoyd

V. C.

, & Smith

(2002). Physical Discipline and Behavior Problems in African American, European American, and Hispanic Children: Emotional Support as a Moderator. Journal of Marriage and Family , 64(1), 40–53.

37.

Merz

E. C.

, Tottenham

, & Noble

K. G.

(2017). Socioeconomic status, amygdala volume, and internalizing symptoms in children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology , 47(2), 312–323.

38.

Meunier

J. C.

, Bisceglia

, & Jenkins

J. M.

(2012). Differential parenting and children’s behavioral problems: Curvilinear associations and mother–father combined effects. Developmental Psychology , 48(4), 987–1002.

39.

Miller-Perrin

C. L.

, Perrin

R. D.

, & Kocur

J. L.

(2009). Parental physical and psychological aggression: Psychological symptoms in young adults. Child Abuse & Neglect , 33, 1–11

40.

Muris

, Meesters

, & Brakel

A. van

. (2003). Assessment of anxious rearing behaviors with a modified version of “Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran” questionnaire for children. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment , 25, 229–237.

41.

National Bureau of Statistics. (2020). 2020 China statistical yearbook . China Statistics Press.

42.

National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China. (2018). 2018 report on China’s migrant population development . China Population Publishing House.

43.

Peng

(2019). Getting rural migrant children into school in South China: Migrant agency and parenting. Asian Population Studies , 15, 172–189.

44.

Quach

A. S.

, Epstein

N. B.

, Riley

P. J.

, Falconier

M. K.

, & Fang

(2015). Effects of parental warmth and academic pressure on anxiety and depression symptoms in Chinese adolescents. Journal of Child and Family Studies , 24, 106–116.

45.

Rohner

R. P.

(2004). The parental “acceptance-rejection syndrome”: Universal correlates of perceived rejection. American Psychologist , 59, 830–840.

46.

Rohner

R. P.

, Khaleque

, & Cournoyer

D. E.

(2005). Parental acceptance-rejection: Theory, methods, cross-cultural evidence, and implications. Ethos , 33, 299–334.

47.

Salmivalli

(2018). Peer victimization and adjustment in young adulthood: Commentary on the special section. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology , 46, 67–72.

48.

Sidhu

S. S.

, & Vasireddy

(2020). The Detention of Migrant Families. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry , 59(6), 681–683.

49.

Spence

S. H.

(1997). Structure of anxiety symptoms among children: A confirmatory factor-analytic study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology , 106, 280–297.

50.

Spence

S. H.

(1999). Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (parent version) . University of Queensland.

51.

Stacks

A. M.

, Oshio

, Gerard

, & Roe

(2009). The moderating effect of parental warmth on the association between spanking and child aggression: A longitudinal approach. Infant and Child Development , 18(2), 178–194.

52.

Straus

M. A.

, Hamby

S. L.

, Finkelhor

, Moore

D. W.

, & Runyan

(1998). Identification of child maltreatment with the parent–child conflict tactics scales: Development and psychometric data for a national sample of American parents. Child Abuse & Neglect , 22, 249–270.

53.

Straus

M. A.

, & Stewart

J. H.

(1999). Corporal punishment by American parents: National data on prevalence, chronicity, severity, and duration, in relation to child and family characteristics. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review , 2, 55–70.

54.

Sun

W. P.

, Hu

, Guo

Y. Q.

, & Zhou

L. H.

(2007). Psychological wellbeing of children of migrant workers from an elementary school in Chong Qing. Chinese Journal of School Health , 28, 68.

55.

Tabachnick

B. G.

, & Fidell

L. S.

(2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.) . Allyn & Bacon/Pearson Education.

56.

Wang

, Zhang

, & Liu

(2020). Perceived discrimination, loneliness, and non-suicidal self-injury in Chinese migrant children: The moderating roles of parent-child cohesion and gender. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships , 38(3), 825–847.

57.

Wang

, Li

, & Liu

(2019). Perceived appropriateness as a moderator of the association between corporal punishment and Chinese adolescents’ externalizing behaviors. Journal of Child and Family Studies , 28, 2867–2875.

58.

Wang

, & Liu

(2014). Parental harsh discipline in mainland China: Prevalence, frequency, and coexistence. Child Abuse & Neglect , 38, 1128–1137.

59.

Wang

, & Liu

(2018). Reciprocal relations between harsh discipline and children’s externalizing behavior in China: A 5-year longitudinal study. Child Development , 89, 174–187.

60.

Wang

, Meng

, Liu

, & Liu

(2016). Reliability and validity of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale for parents in Mainland Chinese children and adolescents. Child Psychiatry & Human Development , 47, 830–839.

61.

Wang

, Niu

, & Zhao

(2018). Revision of “Egna Minnen Beträffende Uppfostran” Questionnaire for Children. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology , 26, 6–11.

62.

Wang

, Wang

, & Liu

(2016). Paternal and maternal psychological and physical aggression and children’s anxiety in China. Child Abuse & Neglect , 51, 12–20.

63.

Wang

M.T.

, & Kenny

(2014). Parental physical punishment and adolescent adjustment: Bidirectionality and the moderation effects of child ethnicity and parental warmth. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology , 42(5), 717–730.

64.

Wong

F. K. D.

, Chang

Y. L.

, & He

X. S.

(2009). Correlates of psychological wellbeing of children of migrant workers in Shanghai, China. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology , 44, 815–824.

65.

Wong

W. C. W.

, Chen

W. Q.

, Goggins

W. B.

, Tang

C. S.

, & Leung

P. W.

(2009). Individual, familial and community determinants of child physical abuse among high-school students in China. Social Science & Medicine , 68, 1819–1825.

66.

, Lu

, & Kang

(2015). Social capital and the mental health of children in rural China with different experiences of parental migration. Social Science & Medicine , 132, 270–277.

67.

, Tsang

, & Ming

(2012). Social Capital, Family Support, Resilience and Educational Outcomes of Chinese Migrant Children. British Journal of Social Work , 44(3), 636–656.

68.

Xing

, Liu

, & Wang

(2019). Parental warmth and harsh discipline as mediators of the relations between family SES and Chinese preschooler’s inhibitory control. Early Childhood Research Quarterly , 48, 237–245.

69.

Xing

, & Wang

(2017). Gender Differences in the Moderating Effects of Parental Warmth and Hostility on the Association between Corporal Punishment and Child Externalizing Behaviors in China. Journal of Child and Family Studies , 26(3), 928–938.

70.

Ying

, Yan

, Shen

, Jia

, & Lin

(2019). Economic pressure and loneliness in migrant children in China: The mediating roles of parent–child communication and parental warmth. Child Psychiatry & Human Development , 50, 142–149.

71.

Zhang

, Yan

, & Yuan

(2019). Rural-urban migration and mental health of Chinese migrant children: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders , 257, 684–690.

72.

Zhao

, Xing

, & Wang

(2012). Psychometric properties of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) in Mainland Chinese children and adolescents. Journal of Anxiety Disorders , 26, 728–736.

73.

Zhu

, Haegele

J. A.

, & Healy

(2019). Movement and mental health: Behavioral correlates of anxiety and depression among children of 6–17 years old in the U.S. Mental Health and Physical Activity , 16, 60–65.