Peer-reviewed article
Early Maternal Parenting Profiles and Subsequent Child Well‐Being in an Asian Cohort
Claramae Seow, Mioko Sudo, Yena Kyeong, Helen Chen, Michelle Z. L. Kee et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined parenting styles among Singaporean mothers and their effects on children's well-being over time. Researchers identified three distinct parenting profiles at age 4.5 years: Supportive, Supportive-Harsh, and Unsupportive. Children whose mothers were Unsupportive showed higher levels of perceived maternal indifference and depressive symptoms by ages 9-10, compared to children with Supportive or Supportive-Harsh mothers. The findings suggest that supportive parenting practices are more protective of children's mental health than harsh practices in this Asian context.
Key points
- Three maternal parenting profiles emerged: Supportive (high supportive, low harsh), Supportive-Harsh (high both), and Unsupportive (moderate both)
- Children of Unsupportive mothers reported greater maternal indifference at age 9 and depressive symptoms at age 10
- Children's perception of maternal indifference mediated the link between early parenting profiles and later depressive symptoms
- Supportive parenting practices had greater protective implications for child well-being than harsh practices
- Traditional Western parenting style categories do not fully apply to this Asian population
Limitations
The study relies on maternal self-report of parenting at baseline and child self-report of outcomes later, which may be subject to recall bias and social desirability bias. The sample is from Singapore only, limiting generalizability even within Asia.
Abstract
ABSTRACT Objective To identify parenting profiles among Singaporean mothers of young children and to examine the longitudinal implications of these profiles for children's well‐being during middle childhood. Background The universality of traditional parenting styles (e.g., authoritative, authoritarian), established in Western contexts, and their implications for child well‐being, has been called into question, with studies conducted with Asian populations suggesting these styles may not be universally applicable. Method Our sample consisted of 411 mother–child dyads drawn from a prebirth cohort in Singapore, where mothers reported on their parenting at child age 4.5 years, and children reported on their evaluation of their mothers' parenting and their own depressive symptoms at ages 9 and 10 years, respectively. Results Three latent class profiles of maternal parenting emerged at child age 4.5 years: Supportive (high use of supportive practices and low use of harsh practices), Supportive‐Harsh (high use of both supportive and harsh practices), and Unsupportive (moderate use of both supportive and harsh practices). Children of Unsupportive mothers reported greater maternal indifference at age 9 years and depressive symptoms at age 10 years compared to children of Supportive or Supportive‐Harsh mothers. Children's evaluation of maternal indifference mediated the association between early maternal parenting profiles and later child depressive symptoms. Conclusion Our findings highlight the variation in parenting profiles in Singapore from well‐established parenting styles, and the greater implications of supportive, compared to harsh, parenting practices for children's well‐being.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Supportive maternal parenting practices (as opposed to harsh or unsupportive practices)
- Population
- 411 mother-child dyads in Singapore, followed from child age 4.5 years to ages 9-10 years
Key finding
Children of Supportive mothers had lower depressive symptoms at age 10 compared to Unsupportive mothers