Knowing one’s parents’ friends: association with parental closeness.

Abstract

Is one knowing about their parents social lives associated with how close they are to them？ An obvious answer might be yes. We first found that in a sample of Chinese students， they are more aware of the number of friends their mother has tham the friends their dads have. We then found that， for girls， knowing their mom and dad's friends predicts closeness with dad. Closeness to mother is not associated with knowledge of either parents social network.For boys，  however， knowing mothers friends （but not the fathers friends） predicts their closeness to the father. As with girls，  knowing either parents network is not associated with maternal closeness. This research implies that there are different ways closeness emerges between mothers and fathers and their children

Introduction to the research

The topic of parental closeness is an intriguing topic because this topic is very close to real life. These are the things that happen every day. When people are conversing with their parents， does information transfer both ways， or is it asymmetric？ Often， parents are the ones wanting to know their kids lives while the kids rarely pay attention to their parents lives. This research is all about finding out how parental closeness is associated with how much people know about their parents lives. Does knowing about how many friends ones parents have relate to how close he or she is to them？ We have found some very interesting results in our data that we did not expect in the first place.

Hypothesis

Girls that know more about their moms lives are more close to mom; Boys that know more about their dads lives are closer to dad; Boys that know more about their moms lives are closer to mom.

Method

We tested our hypothesis by conducting a survey. The survey was conducted on students from a summer camp （Special As elite summer camp） and the students taking the test were mostly aged from thirteen to eighteen， which is a perfect age spectrum for this research that is targeted at teenagers. Moreover， these students are relatively more diverse than students from regular Chinese public high school -- they all go to school in different places （U.S.， England or international schools in China.）

We started by asking a series of demographic questions about the basic information of the survey respondents. These questions include： the grade and age of students， where they come from and where do they go to school， what are their family situations. These basic questions would contribute to the accuracy of the survey result by eliminating unexpected variations in data.

After the set of demographic questions， we designed mostly parallel questions to ask both the students and the students  parents.

Moreover， we applied different ways to ask students to answer the questions. Sometimes we used a scale for the student to rate their relationship to their mom and dad. This is a easier way to quantify the result. Other times， they could answer the questions with an approximate percentage. This allows students to answer something they are not particularly sure but are still able to give a result that is easier for us to quantify.

In addition， we added some multiple choice questions so that students can select faster and more accurate. Moreover， we added some open ended questions so we can get a more well rounded result.

Literature Review

About Parental closeness： The meaning of parental closeness is the close bonds between a child and his or her families have different spectrums of closeness and most frequently， kids tend to drift away from their parents during the process of growing up. Besides， parents pay more attention to their kids lives than their kids pay attention to their lives. By measuring the number of students that know about their parents friends， it helps us to find the relation between kids and their parents.

Cross Cultural Differences

There is often a huge variation between different cultures. If this survey were conducted on Americans， the result would be much different. Asian typically are less likely to show great affection in the family， unlike Americans who show affection easily and are more likely to open up to their parents. Therefore， generally Americans are more likely to be closer to their parents than Chinese do. As a result of difference of information disclosure， students studying in America is more likely to know more about their parents.

Research Implications

This research was conducted in order to examine a common issue around the teenagers： their relationship with parents. Communication indeed is a crucial part of a healthy family. By examining the relationship between teenagers and their parents and how it affects both of their social lives， we came a step closer to finding the problems in communication. Therefore I believe that this research is meaningful and important.

Research Conclusion

Firstly， we found that most people can answer the questions about their moms network， but not their dads. Many students cannot give answer about dad's network;             For mom's question， they can usually say approximately how many friends she has and the gender percentage. Because of this I did a paired sample T- Test， and compared the likelihood of knowing ones moms and dads network. The likelihood of knowing ones moms network is about 63% and the likelihood of knowing ones dads is 32% ---- nearly half of moms possibility. Then， I checked if there were implications on the language and gender. Unfortunately， the data are proved to be an insignificant result as either in Chinese or English， the result seems similar. Then， I compare the closeness of students to their parents and the situation they know of their parents. The result is that if one is close to their mom， one is close to their dad which suggest a harmonious family. Second， for girls， knowing more about their mom， makes them closer to their dads. This is certainly an odd result but the data is shown very significant. The same result is shown within boys

Discussion 1 ：

In both genders， if one know more about their mom， one is closer to their dads.  The following possible statement： when mom has more friends， which usually indicates a extrovert characteristic， she is more likely to share her life with the family， which evokes more conversations between children and their dads.

Discussion 2：

In general， kids know much more about their moms than their dads. The result can be inferred in two ways： either moms are more inclined to share things about her life than dad， or moms spend more time with their children. We calculate the percentage of parents having a full time job， 85.7% of the dads have a full time job compared to 62.3 % in moms. Though there is a difference between mom and dads job occupation time， it still does not quite explain the fact that twice as much kids know more about their mom than their dad. A logical guess can be that dads are less willing to share their lives with the family than mom. However， this still require further experimentation and survey to know for sure.

何玲熹

年齡：16岁

城市：美国洛杉矶

就读学校： Harvard-Westlake School

未来申请专业目标：社会心理学和经济学专业

这是我写的第一篇科学论文，我认为对我来说很有挑战性。一开始我认为写论文很有难度。但是之后我意识到，当我真正去尝试时，其实并没有想象中那么困难。在老师的指导下，我选定研究项目，制定调查问卷，统计数据，最后做出总结。通过这次经历，我学会了写论文的方法，还认识到凡事要敢于尝试。会者不难，难者不会。克服自己心中的屏障，才能看到一个有更多可能性的世界。