The Influence Of Family Parenting Styles And Friendship Quality On The Development Of Mobile And Urban Children's Intergroup Attitudes

This research,based on Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological model of human development,adopted longitudinal research design to explore developmental trajectories of inter-group attitudes of urban and migrant children and their similarities and differences.This research also investigated the influence of parenting style and friendship quality,two proximal processes that affect individual development,on the developmental trajectory of the inter-group attitudes,as well as the similarities and differences of this mechanism between migrant and urban children.This study consisted of pilot study and main study.The purpose of the pilot study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Parenting Style and Dimension Questionnaire(PSDQ),Friendship Quality Questionnaire(FQQ)and the explicit attitude scale for children.The purpose of the main study included two aspects:(1)to explore the developmental trajectories of inter-group attitudes of fourth-grade children in Nanjing and Shanghai;(2)to examine the influence of parenting style and friendship quality on the development trajectory of inter-group attitudes,in particular the mediating effect of friendship quality on the relationship between parenting style and inter-group attitudes.The similarities and differences relating the two aspects between migrant and urban children groups were of interest.The pilot study was conducted among 1018 grade 4?6 students and their parents in Nanjing and Shanghai,among whom,319 were urban children and 577 were migrant children.The results showed that(1)the authoritative and authoritarian scales,friendship quality questionnaire,and the children's explicit attitude scale had good reliability and validity,and also met the equivalence across the urban and migrant children groups.These measures were applicable for grade 4 to grade 6 students.(2)Parenting styles,friendship quality and inter-group attitude were significantly correlated with one another among migrant and urban children.(3)The inter-group attitude of the migrant children was the inner-group preference,while that of the urban children was neutral,with neither the inner-group nor the outer-group preferences.The main study used the measures validated by the pilot study surveying 983fourth-grade students and their parents in Nanjing and Shanghai.Among the students,206 were urban children and 696 were migrant children.The three-wave data collection started in May 2015 and the follow-up survey was conducted every six months.The results showed that(1)the development of inter-group attitudes of children in grade4-to grade 5 was on the rise,but there were differences between urban and migrant groups at the initial level and development rate.(2)There are two sub-categories of development trajectories,namely,the high-stable group and the low-rising group for migrant children,with the proportion of the population in each trajectory was 8.9% and 91.1%,respectively.(3)There were a difference in the influence of parenting style on the development of inter-group attitudes between migrant and urban children.In the migrant children group,mothers' authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles had a significant positive predictive effect on migrant children's development trajectory of internal group preferences.Paternal authoritarian style had a significant negative predictive effect on urban children's development of out-group preference.(4)The quality of friendship could significantly predict the development of children's inter-group attitudes.The higher the level of positive friendship quality,the more likely migrant children remained the high and stable in-group preference,and urban children remained the lower level of out-group preference.(5)The friendship quality only played a mediating role in the relationship between migrant children' parenting and the development trajectory of the inner-group preference.Finally,the contributions and limitations of this research were discussed.The implications of the research results on the development of inter-group attitudes among migrant children were also summarized.