Purpose. The purpose of the proposed study is to investigate the differences and similarities in child-rearing practices among Chinese, Chinese-American, and non-Asian American parents.

Variables. The independent variables are the parents’ ethnic background (Chinese, Chinese-American, or non-Asian American) and the child’s sex (male or female). The dependent variables are eight parental child-rearing practices dimensions: father’s and mother’s parental control, father’s and mother’s encouragement of independence, father’s and mother’s expression of affection, and father’s and mother’s emphasis on achievement.

Methodology. The subjects of this study are the mothers and fathers of children from intact families enrolled in kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. Forty-four Chinese Chinese, 46 Chinese-American, and 48 non-Asian Americans parent-couples participated in this study. The Chinese parent couples were recruited in Taiwan. The immigrant Chinese-American parent couples were recruited from the states of Maryland and Virginia. The non-Asian American parent couples were recruited in Virginia. The child-rearing variables were measured by four subscales, 28 items, from the Child-Rearing Practices Report (CRPR) developed by Block (1986). The subjects rated each item on a 5-point rating scale. A two way-MANOVA (3 x 2) (ethnic group x child’s sex), univariate ANOVA tests, Tukey tests, repeated measure analysis, Pearson correlation coefficients, and dependent ṯ-tests were used to analyze the data.

Findings and Conclusions. The two way MANOVA yielded significant group effect on the parental variables F(16, 250)= 10.31, p<.0001. Generally, it was found that Chinese and Chinese-American parents tended to rate higher on parental control, encouragement of independence, and emphasis on achievement than American parents.