Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds study

Mothers whose parents help out with childcare are more likely to show their children parental warmth than mothers who do not receive any support, finds a study led by NTU Singapore. According to the NTU-led study, which analysed data from 615 mother-child pairs enrolled in the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) cohort study, mothers of children aged 4½ years said they engaged in less frequent authoritarian (strict and controlling) parenting when the child's maternal grandparents stepped in to help. When their child was 6, mothers who had been supported by their own parents also reported engaging in more positive parenting, which is characterised by warmth, responsiveness, and a stimulating home environment. The study did not find evidence to support an association between support from other types of caregiving arrangements—paternal grandparents, both maternal and paternal grandparents, or domestic helpers—and the above-mentioned positive parenting approaches in mothers. Assoc Prof Setoh Peipei from the Psychology division at NTU's School of Social Sciences, who led the study, said: "While maternal grandparents, paternal grandparents, and domestic helpers all have the potential to provide instrumental assistance and emotional encouragement when it comes to childcare duties, our study found that childcare support from maternal grandparents was the most beneficial. This finding supports the idea introduced in earlier research that maternal grandparents are uniquely positioned to provide support in a manner most aligned with the needs of mothers, possibly due to shared values and ease of communication."

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