Family Socioeconomic Status and Children’s Gender Differences in Taiwanese Teenagers’ Perception of Parental Rearing Behaviors

This study investigated Taiwanese middle school students’ perceptions of their parents’ rearing behaviors, examining the gender invariance of the students’ appraisals. First, we examined and revised the s-EMBU for Taiwanese middle school students. Second, multigroup analyses were conducted to confirm the measurement invariance between boys and girls. Finally, we investigated the associations between family socioeconomic status and students’ perceptions of their parental rearing behaviors. There were two samples of Taiwanese middle school students. Sample 1 included 598 students and was used to verify the s-EMBU scale, which measured individual perceptions of parental parenting behaviors, including rejection, emotional warmth, and overprotection. Sample 2 included 1,153 students who responded to the revised s-EMBU scale. A SEM with a multigroup analysis was conducted to examine the differences in structural weights for each gender. The results confirmed the measurement invariance between boys and girls for the revised s-EMBU. The latent mean structural analyses revealed that Taiwanese middle school girls perceived a higher level of parental emotional warmth, while boys perceived higher levels of parental rejection and overprotection. In addition, the study also demonstrated that SES was related to parental rearing behaviors for boys rather than girls. The study revised and validated the measure of s-EMBU with Taiwanese middle school samples, confirming the measurement invariance between boys and girls. In conclusion, the findings could help us understand middle school students’ perceptions of parental rearing behaviors, providing some insights into parenting approaches. Highlights Taiwanese middle school girls perceived relatively high parental emotional warmth, while boys perceived relatively high parental rejection and overprotection. SES was related to perceived parental rearing behaviors in the sample of boys compared with girls. The mandarin version of the s-EMBU that was modified in this study had good reliabilities and validities; therefore, future researchers can consider the scale as an appropriate instrument.