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

A study led by NTU Singapore has found that mothers whose parents help out with childcare are more likely to show their children parental warmth than mothers who do not receive any support. The study, which was published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, analysed data from 615 mother-child pairs enrolled in the GUSTO cohort study, and showed that mothers of children aged 4½ years said they engaged in less frequent authoritarian 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. Interestingly, the study did not find evidence to support an association between support from other types of caregiving arrangements and the above-mentioned positive parenting approaches in mothers.

Study lead and Director of NTU’s Early Cognition Lab Assoc Prof Setoh Peipei 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.” While the study was done in Singapore, the research team said the findings that differentiate maternal grandparental support from paternal grandparental support could be relevant across Asian countries, where grandparental involvement in childcare is considered a cultural expectation.

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