Psychological Wellbeing in the Context of China's Large-Scale Social And Economic Change

摘要

China's dramatic economic development has resulted in profound social and political changes with significant implications for Chinese citizens (Yoshikawa, Way, & Chen, 2012). With an increase in market competition and influence of Western business practices, studies investigating Chinese management styles among state, private, and foreign-owned business have noted the differences in job autonomy and changes in the notion of social connectedness across job sectors (Cooke, 2013; Guthrie, 2012; Pyke, Robb, & Farley, 2000). The present study was conducted to examine the possible impact of China's rapid social and economic change on the psychological and developmental outcomes of parents and adolescents in contemporary China. Using parent perception of their work climate characteristics as an indicator for the impact of the economic transition, analyses focused on understanding the relationships between work climate, parent report of psychological distress, adolescent perception of parenting practices, adolescent self-report of depressive symptoms, and adolescent report of parent-adolescent relationship quality. Participants included data from a longitudinal mixed method study with 706 Chinese middle school students and their parents from Nanjing, China collected between 2006-2008.;Mediation analysis suggest a three-stage spill over model linking parent work climate to parent psychological distress, which in turn was associated parenting practices and adolescent outcomes including adolescent depressive symptoms and relationship quality. Implications for counseling practice are discussed, highlighting the importance of considering how macro level contexts may impact families from developing nations such as China.