The Mediational Role of Parenting in the Relationship between Family Poverty and Social-Emotional Competence in Chinese Adolescents

Parents play irreplaceable roles in the shaping of social-emotional competence in adolescents, particularly in economically disadvantaged families. By surveying a sample of 965 adolescents from Hong Kong, China, we found that the associations between parenting behaviors and the social-emotional competence of their children varied by gender; that is, the associations between parenting behaviors and the social-emotional competence of female were much stronger as opposed to male students. Specifically, the magnitude of the positive association between positive parenting behaviors and social-emotional competence in female adolescents was larger than that in male adolescents. Similarly, the magnitude of the negative association between negative parenting behaviors and social-emotional competence among female adolescents was also larger than that of male adolescents. This difference can be explained by different interpretations of social-emotional competence, along with different opportunities for social practice across genders in communities based on traditional Chinese culture.