Defining Tiger Parenting

Defining Tiger Parenting in Chinese Americans
Simona Nissan
San José State University

Su Yeong Kim on the article Defining Tiger Parenting in Chinese Americans presents the results of the research about the existence of Tiger Mother in the Chinese Americans society. Amy Chua in her book Tiger Mother argues that her daughters' success derives from the fact that she had used “tiger mothering,” unlike the American parenting that focus of developing and improving children's self-esteem. However, the study found that this type of parenting is no common among the Chinese Americans society. Moreover, there is not relation between “tiger mothering” and superior academic preference. They found that the best development is among kids
with supportive parents. The study was conducted among 444 Chinese American families in Northern California during eight years. The researchers studied through the interaction of the mother, father and their child the development and achievements of the kid. The study refutes the Chua’s arguments and found that majority of the Chines American parents are “supportive.” In addition, the academic achievement (GPA) of the kids with “supportive” parents was higher comparing to children of tiger parents. The results showed unequivocally that children of support parents had better developmental results in multiple interests and over a time period. In the context of criticism of Chua about the American education system, the scholarly research supports the claim that the cultural affects of the way Asian American parents educated their kids compared to European American parents. However, Cheah, Leung, and Zhou [2013] argues that the Chinese American mothers already realized that the Chinese approach to raising children is too stiff and according to Way et al. [2013] the parenting target today is to take care of their children’s happiness and emotional well-being togther with academic achievement.
Ruth Chao already dealt with the topic of the Chinese way of parenting in 1994, when she examined the observation that Asian American children are success academically, while their parents were being described as authority that must be respected, and they enforce the rules by physical punishment. In contrast exists the claim of the literature on European Americans that argues that the Chinese parenting it is authoritative parenting what means that the parent is the authority, but they also show understanding to their child’s needs and lets them to feel comfortable when they make mistakes or ask question about the rules. Chao finally concludes that the parenting among Chines American group can be a combination of the both approaches.
The research found four negative and four positive parenting elements.
The positive characters include warmth, inductive reasoning (generalizations), monitoring and democratic. On the other hand the negative characters include hostility (enmity), punitive, psychological control and shaming. Combining the whole eight characteristics creates four main types of parenting profiles: tiger, supportive, harsh, and easygoing. The obvious conclusion from the data is that the supportive parenting is the importance parenting type among the Chinese Americans, since supportive parenting prevents a negative developmental way in young Chinese American. In addition, Chinese American children experience less depressive symptoms (Kim and Ge 2000). Finally, the involvement of the father in the process can cause or increase the optimal development of the Chinese American children.
The research found two main intricacies in the context of Tiger Parenting. First one is the involvement of the parent process. Chua [2011] emphasizes that tiger parenting is the mother’s job; however, the research finds that tiger fathers becomes involve in the Chinese Americans families when the children become more busy with commitments outside the home as independent adults. Second complexity is that existing a number of other aspects beyond the eight dimensions that should be considered such as, the parents set goals or
principles.
The author concludes three main insights. First, The study gives a legitimation to other scholars from different disciplines such as, law, economics, and psychiatry to research the subject. Second, the aim of the research is to educate the public regarding stereotype and myths that the media publishes about the different types of the Chinese parenting. Finally, it is the time to stop the ‘‘model minority’’ stereotype of Asian American children and adolescents. My conclusion includes some insights and questions. First, after I read the article, I understand that lack of knowledge and tendentious articles led me to follow stereotypes and believe them. I am sorry about it. Second, There is no one right way to educate and every parent needs to find the right and the appropriate way for him and his children. Finally a question, Amy Chua’s book actually pushes forward the “model minority”. Why she published the book? Does she want to raise awareness of the issue or she just wants publicity?