The Difference In Parent-Child Relationships Between Social Classes In Urban China

Different from existing related researches, this paper views social class as a conglomerate of specific variables that must be examined separately in terms of class differences in parent-child relationships. Using the survey data from Shanghai Family Survey 2010 (SHFS2010), this study examined the effects of social class, specifically parents’ occupational status, education and family income on the mother-child relationships, and father-child relationships. Besides, this paper also tried to examine Melvin Kohn’s suggestive argument that class differences in patent-child relationships are a product of differences in parental values. The result indicated that the new middle-class parents were more likely communicate with their child frequently than the working-class parents; there was a big difference between the new and old middle-class, the technical and non-technical working-class patents; parents’ education and family income both positively predicted closeness in parent-child relationships. Compared with father, mother’s occupational status, education and income had more impotent effects. However, our finding can not support Melvin Kohn’s argument.