The effects of life stress, social support, cultural beliefs, and social norms on parenting styles were examined for mainland Chinese (MC), Chinese Canadian (CC) and European Canadian (EC) mothers of 2- to 6-year-old children. Authoritarian parenting increased with stress and traditional parenting beliefs and decreased with social support. EC mothers used less authoritarian parenting than either CC or MC mothers. This cultural difference was fully mediated by stress. For authoritative parenting, there was a country of residence effect, which was not mediated; MCs were less authoritative than either CCs or ECs. All mothers were more authoritative when less stressed, when they had lower traditional childrearing beliefs, and when they were more individualist. The results suggest the importance of the immediate social environment in influencing these cultural differences. © The Author(s) 2011.

Social support Cross-cultural differences Chinese families Stress Parenting styles

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