Psychological Science ›› 2015, Vol. ›› Issue (2): 361-365.

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The Relationships among Parenting Styles, Adult Attachment, and Psychological Distress of Mongolian and Han College Students

  

  • Received:2014-09-11 Revised:2014-12-02 Online:2015-03-20 Published:2015-03-20

蒙汉族大学生父母教养方式、成人依恋与心理困扰的关系研究

李笑燃1,段兴华2,王佳智3,吴彩霞2   

  1. 1. 内蒙古师范大学教育科学学院
    2. 内蒙古农业大学马克思主义学院
    3. 美国北德克萨斯大学心理学系
  • 通讯作者: 段兴华

Abstract: The attachment perspective has been widely used as a framework in understanding individual differences in psychosocial functioning. Although the influence of adult attachment on one’s mental health has been well documented in literature with support mostly based on Western samples, researchers have cautioned that empirical validation is needed before applying the theory to people with different cultural backgrounds. This study examined the relationships among parenting styles, adult attachment variables, and psychological distress using a college student sample that included both Mongolian and Han descendants. It was hypothesized that there would be significant ethnic group differences in parenting styles, adult attachment variables, and psychological distress. Both attachment avoidance and anxiety would be negatively associated with perceived parental care and autonomy. Both attachment avoidance and anxiety would be positively associated with depression, stress, and anxiety. Adult attachment would mediate the relationship between parenting style and mental health variables. In addition, a mediation model simultaneously considering the effects of parenting styles and adult attachment (the hypothesized mediator) on psychological adjustment would be supported by the data. Participants included 576 college students recruited from four Inner Mongolian universities who volunteered to complete a research questionnaire. Among them, there were 244 males (42.4%) and 332 females (57.6%) with a mean age of 20.58 (SD = 1.48). Regarding race/ethnicity, 299 (51.9%) were Mongolian(growing up in native Mongolian families and speak both Chinese and Mongolian), and 254 (44.1%) were Han. The instruments used in this study include The Experience in Close Relationship Scale, which measured adult attachment (including attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety), Parental Bonding Inventory, which assessed parenting style and yields separate scores for father and mother, and The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS), which measured psychological distress. The findings from this study revealed that parental care and autonomy of Mongolian students is significant higher than those of Han students. The SEM analyses were used to examine the proposed mediation model in which adult attachment was hypothesized to mediate the relations between parent-child relationship quality and psychological distress (i.e., depression, anxiety, & stress). The findings revealed adequate model fit indexes for the Han sub-sample (CFI=.99, GFI=.98, RMSEA=.02, SRMR=.007). The results suggest that for Han young adults, parental over-control may be a useful framework in understanding individual differences in their psychological distress and that adult attachment may play a critical role in the link between parenting style and experienced distress. For the Mongolian young adults, the results have also shown that mother’s indifference/rejection and over-control had significantly predictive power for adult children’s attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety and that parental indifference/rejection and over-control significantly predicted their psychological distress. However, the fit indexes of the SEM model were not as good as those for the Han sample. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Key words: parenting style, adult attachment, psychological distress, mediators, Mongolia and Han ethnic group

摘要: 通过整群抽样方法抽取了576名大学生,对其施测父母养育方式量表、亲密关系体验量表和心理困扰量表,运用结构方程模型技术,分别考察了父母养育方式的蒙汉族差异以及成人依恋模式在父母养育方式和心理困扰间的中介作用。结果表明:(1) 蒙古族父母对孩子的关爱程度和给孩子的自主性要显著高于汉族;(2) 汉族的成人依恋模式在父母过度保护与抑郁-焦虑-压力之间起着部分中介作用,而蒙古族成人依恋的中介作用不明显,但母亲的冷漠拒绝和过度保护会导致个体依恋回避和依恋焦虑,父亲的冷漠拒绝和过度保护会影响个体的抑郁和焦虑,母亲的过度保护和父亲的冷漠拒绝会影响个体的压力。

关键词: 父母养育方式,成人依恋,心理困扰,中介作用,蒙汉族