Asian American Journal of Psychology, Vol 17(1), Mar 2026, 13-31; doi:10.1037/aap0000394
Chinese caregivers raising young children in the United States have childrearing beliefs and practices informed by their cultural heritage and family background, experiences living in the United States, and individual parenting perspectives. Their routine care and nurturing of learning experiences for young children often involve multiple individuals, such as mothers, fathers, and grandparents. Yet, their childrearing practices continue to be misunderstood by the dominant U.S. child development frameworks as too strict or academically focused. As such, the present descriptive research sought to elevate Chinese heritage caregivers’ voices by exploring their shared caregiving practices and decisions related to preschool-aged children’s home learning routines. Twenty-seven primary caregivers (12 dyads and three individuals) representing 15 families were interviewed. Multiperspectival interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore caregivers’ meaning-making processes related to cultural orientations, childrearing routines and approaches supporting early learning, and relationships with the coparent. Findings revealed the adaptive nature of shared caregiving arrangements and the culturally and contextually grounded approaches supporting children’s lifelong learning skills development. Importantly, caregivers’ narratives elucidated how Chinese immigrants continued to modify childrearing efforts as a family to overcome the unexpected challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and rise in anti-Asian racism during the same period. These findings have direct relevance for informing the home–school partnership with immigrant families and for helping educators, researchers, and policymakers to understand broader contextual influences (e.g., shared caregiving, cultural backgrounds, childrearing beliefs) on young children’s early learning and development, by providing a strengths-based lens through which to view normative family functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)