Behaviors and Emotion Expressions in Interactions of Mothers and Children from Rural and Urban Families in China: An Observational Study

Objective. This observational study examined behaviors and emotion expressions of rural and urban Chinese mothers and children during interaction. Design. The participants included 95 rural mothers and 102 urban mothers with their children (M age = 9 years; 54 boys in rural group and 53 boys in urban group). Mother–child interactions during a free-play session were observed and coded in terms of initiations and responses. Results. Rural mothers displayed more controlling behaviors, whereas urban mothers displayed more guidance-encouragement in initiations. Rural mothers also displayed more disapproval-neglect responses to their children's initiations than urban mothers. Rural children made fewer initiations and showed more cooperative and compliant responses than urban children, whereas urban children made more neutral responses to mothers' guidance-encouragement. In addition, rural dyads showed fewer positive emotions toward each other than urban dyads. Conclusions. The results about the rural–urban differences in mother–child interactions help achieve a better understanding of how contextual factors shape parenting practices and child behaviors.