Young Chinese and British children's emotional dependency on mothers and psychosocial adjustment : the role of maternal attitudes

Abstract

Emotional dependency, which refers to clingy and over-reliant behavior toward caregivers, has been assumed to impede children’s psychosocial adjustment. However, recent evidence contradicts the universal application of this assumption. The current study aimed to understand emotional dependency based on mothers’ self-reports using a goodness-of-fit perspective, emphasizing culture and parental—specifically, maternal—attitudes as contextual factors in bridging emotional dependency and psychosocial adjustment. The research comprised two studies. In Study 1, participants included 63 mothers from Edinburgh, United Kingdom (M child’s age = 61.56 months), and 67 mothers from Nanjing, China (M child’s age = 60.04 months). The first objective of Study 1 was to examine the cross-cultural differences in the relationship between preschool children’s emotional dependency and psychosocial adjustment. The results showed that the relationship between children’s emotional dependency and psychosocial adjustment was negative among British children but not statistically significant among Chinese children. The second objective of Study 1 was to examine the cultural differences in mothers’ attitudes toward children’s emotional dependency. The results showed significant cross-cultural differences in maternal attitudes toward children’s emotional dependency. Mothers in China perceived children’s emotional dependency as more positive and less negative than mothers in the United Kingdom. The third objective of Study 1 was to examine the role of maternal attitudes in the relationship between children’s emotional dependency and psychosocial adjustment within each cultural group. It was found that mothers’ positive attitudes regarding emotional dependency positively moderated the relation between children’s emotional dependency and engagement and empathy. There was a positive trend between children’s emotional dependency and their empathy and engagement when mothers had a higher level of positive attitudes. Conversely, when mothers exhibited fewer positive attitudes toward emotional dependency, emotional dependency was negatively associated with empathy and engagement. Due to the cross-sectional nature of Study 1, the psychosocial function of emotional dependency from a developmental perspective is not clear, particularly in a collectivistic cultural context. Using a two-wave longitudinal design, Study 2 examined the contribution of emotional dependency and maternal attitudes to psychosocial adjustment in Chinese preschool children. Data were collected from the mothers of 394 preschool children in China (M child’s age = 42.36 months), first at kindergarten first grade and then one year later at kindergarten second grade. The results showed that Chinese children’s emotional dependency positively predicted their development of general social skills and communication, assertion, empathy, and engagement. Additionally, it was found that positive maternal attitudes toward emotional dependency positively moderated the relation between Chinese children’s emotional dependency and psychosocial adjustment. Simple slope analyses indicated that emotional dependency was positively associated with psychosocial adjustment, for children whose mothers had more positive attitudes regarding emotional dependency. When Chinese mothers exhibited a less positive attitude toward emotional dependency, emotional dependency was negatively associated with psychosocial adjustment. The findings stress the importance of contextual factors—namely, culture and maternal attitudes—in understanding the adaptive meaning of a child’s emotional dependency. They also highlight the need for better awareness of the potential difference in such meaning in a cross-cultural context.