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Gaslighting is more likely to occur in relationships with a power imbalance.

Parent-child relationships have a large power imbalance, but studies on gaslighting in this context are rare.

Chinese parenting norms may lead to greater acceptability of gaslighting.

Parental gaslighting of Chinese youth leads to more self-blame for relationship difficulties.

Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse and manipulation that involves one person (the gaslighter) casting doubt on another person’s (the target's) sense of reality, memories, and emotions. While gaslighting was first identified decades ago, widespread public interest in gaslighting is relatively recent. Today, the science on gaslighting is expanding rapidly. Psychologists and other researchers have pointed out that gaslighting often happens in relationships where there is an imbalance in power, and that usually, it is the more powerful partner who gaslights the less powerful partner.

Gaslighting has primarily been studied in relationships that consist of two adults, usually romantic or workplace relationships. But one of the most important close relationships in anyone’s life is their relationship to their parent, and, while one is still a child, this is also a relationship characterized by an immense imbalance in power. Parent-child relationships have therefore been identified as an important and interesting context to study gaslighting, but, so far, research on the topic remains quite sparse.

Part of the reason why parent-child relationships have been relatively neglected in the gaslighting literature is that they are an especially difficult type of abusive relationship to study. Luckily, a group of researchers led by Xi Li at Shanghai Normal University was up to the challenge. They suggest that in........

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