Communication Characteristics of Children from Single-Child Families - Research Proposal Example

The communication characteristics of children from single -child families Introduction: The only child is first and final child of a family and hence, is the only possibility at parenting the parents acquire. Thus, they take this responsibility very sincerely. Since they want to do right by their child, parenting an only child can be high-pressure parenting. They dont want to make blunders at the childs expense and so are very meticulous and conscious in their parenting. Generally the child senses a similar compulsion to do right by the parents. This is not a negligent family because everyone is attempting tremendously hard to do their best. Second, the only child acquires the entire public, touching, and matter resources those parents have to provide. He/she is their only recipient. As parents usually make a high venture in fostering and providing for the child, they often have a high hope of return. They look forward to the child to produce well. Thirdly, the only child has unrivalled right of entry to parents and all they provide because the only child has no siblings with whom to bond, to be matched up to, to struggle against, or to contradict, the child turns out to be adultized from recognizing and interacting with these primary parental companions. Emotionally involved to parents and well reared by them, the only child obtains a lot of parental consideration, warmth, recognition, and support that possibly contribute to one of the more reliable research findings (The adolescent only child). Family communication methods vary among parents of diverse demographic sections as well as among diverse twosome relationships. Parents with an advanced education level and families with advanced household earnings connected more often in concept-leaning communication (Chan and McNeal). This study will emphasize on the communication traits of children from single-child families in China under the one-child policy. One-child policy was recognized in China by Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader in 1979 to restrict socialist Chinas population expansion (Rosenberg). Review of Literature: According to Lu, Jia, and Heisey (2002), the youngsters who are from single-child families are more probable to be occupied in the family acquisition activities than those who are not. They asserted that the young people who are from notion-oriented families have more probability to be engaged in family obtaining activities than those who are not. They also viewed that those youngsters who have more monetary resources have the high chance to be involved in family purchasing behavior than those who are not. Chen and Ma (2002) assessed that there is an exclusive family self-motivation in single-child family. It is because of paying more attention to a single child by the family members, especially to his/her educational accomplishments. Moreover, the communal standard of encouraging education includes pressure to the youngster and the family in a similar way. This generates disagreements in only-child family centering on the youngster’s school-connected issues and less on family-associated ones. Due to differentiation between two age groups of parents in terms of time, power, monetary conditions and educational milieu, the older age group did not pay as much interest to their kids and little communication are revealed in their parenting prototypes. The younger age groups of parents are economically prosperous and usually better cultured and have a tendency to focus much more on single child and do the lot to please the child’s requirements. In family clash circumstances, mothers usually distinguish possible problems and raise them in the family and are liable to converse more. There appears to be more open guide for communication between parents and kids and approaches are becoming more independent, straight and low perspective in nature. Carr (1999) talked about modern child and juvenile clinical psychology. He has discussed about the conduct problems within a child that result in adult criminality and grow anti-communal disorders within a youngster. In accordance with Burns (1990), the stresses produced by sterility are on the verge of dysfunctional prototypes of parenting. It has been argued that parents who had complicatedness in conceiving may be over-caring of, and sensitively over-invested in, their much long-awaited baby. Other writers have also advocated that those who become parents after a period of sterility may be over-cautious of their children, or may have impracticable hopes of them or of themselves as parents because of the troubles they face in their effort to give birth (Bornstein, 341). From the view of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by natural Selection (TNS), parents and their biological kids are funded in each other’s well-being because they share, on average, fifty per cent of their genes. This implies, of course, that they vary hereditarily by the other fifty per cent, which recommends that, even though parents’ and children’s main concerns overlie, they do not completely coincide. In accordance with evolutionary psychologists, this offers productive ground for clash between parents and kids, particularly argument over resources. Especially, the evolutionary advance to parent–child disagreement suggests that parents and kids have diverse stakes in the venture and attainment of resources (whether cash, time, concentration, adoration, or other types of resources). Parents are obsessed to invest their resources in their kids in ways that make the most of evolutionary returns (Darwin). Subjects or data to be analyzed: Single child has conventionally been considered self-absorbed, inflexible, socially secluded and less victorious in marriage than child with siblings. Only born to some extent seems to make better rationally, has somewhat higher accomplishment enthusiasm and be less affiliative than non-only borns. It has been seen that only-borns are more meticulous and less friendly than first born and that their mothers are more engaged with the parenting role. Birth of a sibling augments first borns’ appearances of reliance and insists for attention (The Single-Child Family). Chinese interpersonal communiqué behaviors and prototypes are tracked to Confucian principles and philosophies, which provokes awareness of interpersonal associations as reciprocated and co-dependent. Under Confucian belief of kuan-hsi (relations), the father-son (relation of intimacy), husband-wife (relation of difference) and friend-friend (relation of truthfulness) relationships are three fundamental relations. These relations teach individuals about morality and society-based relationships such as those relationships which need to be preserved and maintained. Chinese people often set up friendships by means of associations in other relationships and approve communicating diversely as opposed to far-flung relationships. Communication can be explained as happening in extent of context, with public from China typically classified as higher background culture as opposed to populace from North America who are categorized as a lower perspective culture. In this study, the adult groups are taken into consideration for carrying out the analysis. The samples should be collected from China’s education yearbook and some of the internet sites which have relevant data to perform the analysis. The sample group constitutes the adults studying in schools and colleges of China. In this study, analysis will be done mainly to observe the effect of incorporation of one-child policy on the educational pattern of People’s Republic of China (Anderson, Martin and Zhong, 110). Methodology: In our present study, we will look upon quantitative research method although there are two types of research methods:-quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research relies on subjective information because the participants’ input acts as the primary source of information to the researcher (Creswell).  In the present study, quantitative data has been collected from secondary sources, mainly from the websites of China. Qualitative research generates data that is based on the participants’ self determined categories of meaning, it is useful for analyzing a standard number of cases in detail, and tends to collect data in realistic settings (Creswell).  Types of data collected generally involve the opinions and beliefs of the researcher and the subjects that are being inspected, through the application of various instruments.  Instruments used to collect the data include case studies, interviews and observation (Creswell). Creswell (2001) elucidates qualitative research as an elementary focus, while quantitative research emphasizes on explanatory analysis. In addition, with the qualitative approach the researcher is more contemplative. It implies qualitative research is used when the researcher’s evaluation is based on the participant’s opinion about a particular situation. One of the most important results with this method is that it highlights the researcher’s opinion during the process of research. Quantitative research method adopted for the current study. The current study has taken into account the population statistics of China and the enrollment of adult education for a period of 1960-2006. The year 1979 has been taken as the year of adoption of One-Child Policy. The statistics is obtained from China Yearbook and other appropriate websites. Chow Test will be performed to check the structural break over the years. Data analysis: Here we are dealing with time series data and we want to check whether there is structural change (parametric instability) in the relationship between the regressand (enrolment of adult education) and the regressor (population statistics).By structural change we mean that the value of the parameters do not remain same for the entire time period. A Chow test is a test to determine structural change. It is an econometric test, which determines whether the coefficients of a regression model in separate sub-samples are the same or not. The data set contains information about POPU =population statistics in million and ENROL=number of enrolment of adult education for a particular time period. 47 observations have been taken into consideration for carrying out the Chow Test. Table 1: Data Set for Population and Enrolment of Adult Education for the period 1960- 2006. Year Population (in million) Enrolment of Adult Education (‘000) 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 662 - - - 695 725 - - - 806.7 829.9 852.3 871.8 892.1 908.6 924.2 937.2 949.7 962.6 975.4 996.1 1008.4 1020.6 1039.6 1054.9 1070.2 1086.7 1104.2 1121.9 1127.0 1143.3 1158.2 1171.7 1185.2 1198.5 1211.2 1223.9 1236.3 1247.6 1257.9 1267.4 1276.3 1284.5 1292.3 1299.9 1307.6 1314.5 793.0 410.0 404.0 418.0 445.0 413.0 - - - - - - 16.6 145.8 213.7 729.1 2628.6 1738.9 1408.3 1722.3 1554.1 1346.3 1173.0 1128.0 1384.0 1725.0 1856.0 1858.0 1727.6 1741.1 1666.4 1476.0 1478.7 1862.9 2351.8 2570.1 2655.7 405.1 396.3 431.5 325.9 310.2 335.2 218.5 193.7 218.1 174.7 Source: China Statistical Yearbook; National Bureau of Statistics web site. Statistical Bulletin of Educational Development in China (1997-2006), China Education Daily. China Education yearbook 1949-1981 pp.965-7, 1036-7; China Education yearbook 1982-1984 pp.61-3; Education statistics yearbook of China; Achievement of education in China: statistics. To analyze we need three regression equations, For time period 1960 – 2006: Yt =α1+α2Xt+ut For time period 1960 – 1979: Yt = λ 1+ λ 2Xt+u1t For time period 1980 – 2006: Yt = γ 1+ γ 2Xt+u2t The hypothesis testing has been given below: H0 [(α1= λ 1= γ 1) and (α2= λ 2= γ 2)] and against H1 [(α1≠ λ 1≠ γ 1) and (α2≠ λ 2≠ γ 2)] The F statistic is: [(RRSS-SSR1-SSR2)/ k] / [(SSR1+SSR2)/ (n1+n2-2k)] This is the test statistic for Chow Test. Now if this F statistic is significant there is no structural stability and if it is insignificant then there is structural stability. Table 2. Regression result considering the period from 1960-2006: Variables Entered/Removed(b) Model Variables Entered Variables Removed Method 1 POPU(a) . Enter a All requested variables entered. b Dependent Variable: ENROL Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate 1 .002(a) .000 -.022 747.21499 a Predictors: (Constant), POPU ANOVA(b) Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 132.873 1 132.873 .000 .988(a) Residual 25124860.926 45 558330.243 Total 25124993.799 46 a Predictors: (Constant), POPU b Dependent Variable: ENROL Coefficients(a) Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 1063.735 699.550 1.521 .135 POPU .010 .648 .002 .015 .988 a Dependent Variable: ENROL Table 3. Regression result considering the period from 1960-1979: Variables Entered/Removed(b) Model Variables Entered Variables Removed Method 1 POPU(a) . Enter a All requested variables entered. b Dependent Variable: ENROL Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate 1 .444(a) .197 .179 367.32599 a Predictors: (Constant), POPU ANOVA(b) Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 1489495.923 1 1489495.923 11.039 .002(a) Residual 6071777.292 45 134928.384 Total 7561273.215 46 a Predictors: (Constant), POPU b Dependent Variable: ENROL Coefficients(a) Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) -2037.600 861.872 -2.364 .022 POPU 3.336 1.004 .444 3.323 .002 a Dependent Variable: ENROL Table 4. Regression result considering the period from 1979-2006: Variables Entered/Removed(b) Model Variables Entered Variables Removed Method 1 POPU(a) . Enter a All requested variables entered. b Dependent Variable: ENROL Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate 1 .544(a) .296 .281 503.20949 a Predictors: (Constant), POPU ANOVA(b) Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 4797860.039 1 4797860.039 18.947 .000(a) Residual 11394890.777 45 253219.795 Total 16192750.816 46 a Predictors: (Constant), POPU b Dependent Variable: ENROL Coefficients(a) Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 6212.071 1152.388 5.391 .000 POPU -4.263 .979 -.544 -4.353 .000 a Dependent Variable: ENROL Now in this case we find out that this F statistic is coming out to be: F= [(25124860.926-6071777.292-11394890.777)/2]/ [(6071777.292+11394890.777)/ (47-4)] = (7658192.857/2)/ (17466668.069/43) = 3829096.4285/ 406201.583 = 9.427. Now from table it has been seen that F0.05;2,43 = 19.5 F0.01;2,43 = 99.5 So we can see that Calculated F is less than Tabulated F. So we accept the null hypothesis that all the coefficients are simultaneously zero at both 5 percent and 1 percent level of significance. It means that jointly the regressors are not having any significant influence on the regressand in the regression model. The regression is overall insignificant. The analysis can also be shown by the help of P-value which is the observed level of significance at which null hypothesis can be rejected. Conclusions: Throughout the study, the only-child and their families are taken into account. It has been observed that single child used to differ in their behavioral pattern and many other habits compared to the youngsters having siblings. The Chow test has been carried out in order to show the structural break during the period of 1960-2006. The results interpret that there is no change in the educational pattern of China after the adoption of One-Child policy. This seems to be the limitation of the research due to consideration of a small sample size. Hence, the result is more sample specific and might not be generalized. Moreover, some of the observations were missing. As a result, they had to get replaced by interpolation. Thus, the probable conclusion from this study says that the adoption of only child policy has no significant effect on the improvement of educational level of China. Further studies and research is very much possible in this paper. As only the adults have been considered as samples in this study, the children could also have been taken for analysis. Only two variables have been taken into consideration for this study. Other variables could also have been taken such as, income distribution of the families, parents’ educational status, etc. Therefore, there is ample scope of future research in this study. Works Cited 1. Lu, Xing, Jia, Wenshan, Heisey, D. Ray. Chinese communication studies: contexts and comparisons. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002 2. “The adolescent only child.” Psychology Today, July 19, 2009. Available at: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/surviving-your-childs-adolescence/200907/the-adolescent-only-child (Accessed on July 29, 2009). 3. Chan, Kara, McNeal, James.U. Parent-child communications about consumption and advertising in China. Journal of Consumer Marketing. Vol. 20. Iss. 4. 4. Rosenberg, Matt. “China’s One-Child Policy.” About.com, April 12, 2009. Available at: http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/onechild.htm (Accessed on July 29, 2009). 5. Chen, Guo-Ming, Ma, Ringo. Chinese conflict management and resolution. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. 6. Carr, Alan. The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology: A Contextual Approach. Philadelphia: Psychology Press, 1999. 7. Burns, L.H. “An exploratory study of perceptions of parenting after infertility”. Family Systems Medicine, 8. (1990): 177-189. 8. Bornstein, Marc H. Handbook of Parenting: Being and Becoming a Parent. Philadelphia: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002. 9. “The Single-Child Family.” Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. Vol. 3. Iss. 4. (Dec. 1986): 268-271. 10. “Adult Education and Learning in China: Development and Present Situation.” Chinese National Commission for UNESCO & Chinese Adult Education Association, July 30, 2008. Available at: http://www.unesco.org/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/INSTITUTES/UIL/confintea/pdf/National_Reports/Asia%20-%20Pacific/China.pdf (Accessed on July 29, 2009). 11. Creswell, John. W. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative approaches. Sage Publications, Inc. California: Thousand Oaks, 1994. 12. Creswell, John. W. Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Ohio: Merrill/Prentice-Hall. 13. Agelasto, Michael, Adamson, Bob. Higher education in post-Mao China.. Aberdeen: Hong Kong University Press, 1998. 14. “Chinas population, 1969-2006”. Chinability, n.d. Available at: http://www.chinability.com/Population.htm (Accessed on July 29, 2009). 15. Darwin, Charles. On the origin of species. London: Murray, 1859. 16. Anderson, Carolyn. M, Martin, Matthew. M, Zhong, Mei. “Motives for Communicating with family and friends: A Chinese Study.”, 1998. Read More