Intergenerational comparison of parenting practices in China

Sammanfattning: This thesis outlines an exploratory study which aimed at understanding the influencing factors of parenting practices change among three generations. The theoretical position of this research draws on the work of pragmatism of Bourdieu (1986) who proposed the cultural capital as well as Laraeu (2021), who brought forward the concerted cultivation and natural growth parenting practice methods. Based on this theory, a qualitative semi-structured interview method is conducted for this empirical study to make a distinction for the preference of parenting practice between family and school education by comparing three generations’ exercises. For the interview, 15 interviewees are selected based on the recommendation from two Chinese teachers. The main findings of this study includes: parents with high educational backgrounds (regardless of which generation they are from) always pay more efforts on parenting practice and tends to have concerted cultivation as well as have higher educational expectations for their children. Moreover, families which have high education for a few generations continuously are inclined to emphasize the importance of family education inheritance. Overall, the thesis emphasizes that parents of different generations should adapt to changes in the environment and make appropriate adjustments to their children's parenting exercises correspondingly to fit their children's development at that time.