Maternal Attribution and Chinese Immigrant Children’s Social Skills: The Mediating Role of Authoritative Parenting Practices

Objective. This study explores the contributions of Chinese immigrant mothers’ parenting cognitions and parenting practices to their children’s social skills. Design. We used a cross-sectional design to examine the mediating role of authoritative parenting in associations between Chinese immigrant mothers’ parenting attributions and their children’s social skills. Chinese immigrant mothers (N = 208, M _age = 37.36 years) reported their attributions regarding successes and failures in their daily caregiving experiences, authoritative parenting practices, and demographic information. Their preschool children’s (M _age = 4.51 years, 46.2% females) social skills in school were rated by their teachers. Results. Maternal attributions of successful events to uncontrollable causes and unsuccessful events to controllable causes were associated with more authoritative parenting. In turn, more authoritative parenting was associated with more competent social skills in children. In contrast, maternal attributions of successful events to controllable causes and unsuccessful events to uncontrollable causes were associated with less authoritative parenting, which in turn was associated with poorer social skills in children. Conclusions. Promoting Chinese immigrant mothers’ attributions that preserve positive efficacy during daily parenting tasks may enhance their engagement in warm, autonomy-promoting and regulatory parenting, which in turn may facilitate their children’s social skills.