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AbstractThe study investigated how children's willingness to internalize mothers' values affected the associations between mothers' performance goals for their children and the development of children's perfectionism and depression. The participants were 59 Hong Kong fifth graders and their mothers. The results showed that internalization, as a child factor, moderated the association between mothers' performance goals for their children and children's self‐oriented perfectionism, but not socially prescribed perfectionism. Children's internalization also moderated the association between mothers' performance goals for their children and children's depression. Among the children who were more willing to internalize their mothers' values, their mothers' performance goals for them were correlated positively with their self‐oriented perfectionism, but negatively with their depression. Paradoxically, internalization appeared to be a risk and also a protective factor in the psychological well‐being of children.

AbstractStudies around the world revealed that children's performance is a significant source of parents' self‐worth. This phenomenon is particularly salient among Chinese parents because of the emphasis on interdependent self‐construal in a face culture. With child‐based worth, many parents feel compelled to use conditional regard to minimize children's failure and maximize success. Yet, parental conditional regard is notorious for its undermining effects on children's well‐being. This study aimed to investigate the antecedents and consequences of parental unconditional acceptance to children, an antidote to parental conditional regard. We conducted a priming experiment with 145 parents randomly assigned to child‐based worth or unconditional self‐acceptance conditions. Results showed that child‐based worth was an inhibitive factor, whereas unconditional self‐acceptance was a facilitative factor to parents' provision of unconditional acceptance to children. Parents primed with unconditional self‐acceptance had more intention to provide unconditional acceptance to their children, and in turn had more authoritative responses to their children's undesirable behavior. Our findings have practical implications for parent education.

This study investigated if modernity and Confucian values were ingroups positively valued distinctiveness for Hong Kong adolescents with different social identities. Participants (236 Hong Kong adolescents) filled out a questionnaire which tapped social identity and intergroup perception. They also participated in a card-sorting activity in which they decided if any of 20 attributes (e.g., advanced, respecting collective will) could be used to characterize a specific ethnic–social group (e.g., mainland Chinese, Hongkongers, Americans). Multidimensional scaling performed on the card-sorting data resulted in a two-dimensional solution. Emphasis on Dimension 1 (modernity) correlated with positive perception of Hong Kong and Hong Kong people while emphasis on Dimension 2 (Confucian values) correlated with positive perception of China and Chinese. In addition, compared to adolescents who identified themselves as Chinese or Chinese-Hongkongers, those who identified themselves as Hongkongers or Hongkonger-Chinese placed more emphasis on modernity and less on Confucian values. The results were discussed with reference to Taj fels theory of social identity.