Tiger Parenting—Impact on Children's Mental Health

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHistory of Tiger ParentingExamples of Tiger Parenting MethodsHow Tiger Parenting Affects Children’s Mental HealthHow to Avoid Tiger Parenting Your Kids

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

History of Tiger Parenting

Examples of Tiger Parenting Methods

How Tiger Parenting Affects Children’s Mental Health

How to Avoid Tiger Parenting Your Kids

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Tiger parenting is a strictparenting stylethat pushes children to excel academically at all costs.

Specifically, tiger parents tend to micromanage their children’s lives in ensuring they meet their high expectations. There is little to no room for the child to negotiate how their days are planned as the tiger parent will respond in a “because I said so” manner.

The approach includes limiting the child’s socialization with friends in favor of studying and/or participating in high-status extracurricular activities, using emotional threats and corporal punishment when the child misbehaves, lacking trust in the child’s ability to make decisions on their own, and disrespecting the child’s privacy.

The concept of tiger parenting originates from the teachings of the fifth-century philosopher, Confucius. Confucian philosophy promotes hierarchical family structures, loyalty, strong work ethic, honesty, and commitment to education and academic achievement.

Although Confucius published his books over two thousand years ago, his teachings still have a strong influence over East Asian countries' views of education.

For many East Asian families, education is seen as the gateway to success in improving one’ssocioeconomic status. Higher education is a symbol of status and power. This is especially true for immigrant parents who made the decision to uproot their lives as a way to provide a better future for their children in the West.There is an expectation for their children to succeed and take advantage of the opportunities their parents did not have.

Chua stated that the book was meant to be a memoir of her experiences parenting within two cultures, not a how-to guide that suggests Asian parents are better at raising successful children than Western ones. She emphasized that at the end of the book, her daughter rebels at the age of 13, and that caused her to rethink her approach and transform her role as a mother.

Tiger parenting enforces many rules and gives full control to the parent. There is a power differential between the parent and the child that prevents open and honest conversations. Respect is a one-way street and there is noreward for positive behavior, only discipline for negative behavior.

What’s Your Parenting Style?

This fast and freeparenting styles quizcan help you analyze the methods you’re using to parent your kids and whether or not it may be a good idea to learn some new parenting behaviors:

Children who grew up with tiger parents lack a nurturing and unconditionally loving environment. Overly strict and punitive parenting styles may cause children to:

Signs of Childhood Trauma in Adults

No one ever prepares you for the parenting role. Most parents will make decisions based on how they were raised, what they’ve read or seen, and advice from family and friends. Parenting is stressful and it can be difficult to know whether you’re doing a good job. It’s easy to resort to what you’re conditioned to. Here are some different parenting practices to consider if you or your partner were raised with tiger parenting:

How to Cope With Parental Anxiety and Stress

9 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

American Psychology Association. ‘Tiger parenting’ doesn’t create child prodigies, finds new research. Vol 44, No. 8.

Kim SY.Defining tiger parenting in chinese americans.Human Development. 2013;56(4):217-222. doi:10.1159/000353711

Hsu S.Education as Cultivation in Chinese Culture. Springer Verlag, Singapor; 2016.

Chen C, Uttal DH.Cultural values, parents’ beliefs, and children’s achievement in the united states and china.Human Development.1988;31(6):351-358. doi:10.1159/000276334

Li J.Expectations of chinese immigrant parents for their children’s education: the interplay of chinese tradition and the canadian context.Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation. 2001;26(4):477.

Calzada EJ, Huang KY, Anicama C, Fernandez Y, Brotman LM.Test of a cultural framework of parenting with Latino families of young children.Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. 2012;18(3):285-296. doi:10.1037/a0028694

Kim SY, Wang Y, Orozco-Lapray D, Shen Y, Murtuza M.Does “tiger parenting” exist? Parenting profiles of Chinese Americans and adolescent developmental outcomes.Asian American Journal of Psychology.2013;4(1):7-18. doi:10.1037/a0030612

Kuppens S, Ceulemans E.Parenting styles: a closer look at a well-known concept.J Child Fam Stud. 2019;28(1):168-181. doi:10.1007/s10826-018-1242-x

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