Perceptions of parental treatment styles and adolescent antisocial and prosocial behavior in a Chinese context

Chinese secondary school students (N = 912) were asked to respond to instruments measuring their recalled parental treatment styles as well as their antisocial and prosocial behavior. Results showed that while those who had a more positive perception of paternal or maternal treatment style (in terms of warmth and leniency) showed less antisocial behavior, only recalled maternal treatment style was positively related to prosocial behavior. The data also revealed that relative to recalled paternal treatment, recalled maternal treatment was found to be more predictive of antisocial and prosocial behavior measures. These findings generally do not support the Chinese popular beliefs that a kind mother spoils the son and that parental harshness is beneficial to the development of a child.