The Influence of Social Support on Child-Parent Relationship Among Chinese Mothers of Preschoolers in Penampang, Sabah
Abstract
In the early years, deep contact with parents builds a solid attachment and serves as the foundation for the child's future social relationships. Several studies indicated that social support influences the child-parent relationship. However, there are no published studies that investigated the influence of social support on child-parent relationship among Chinese mothers with preschool children in Sabah. This study aims to examine the status of social support and child-parent relationship among Chinese mothers of preschoolers in Penampang, Sabah. As well, to examine the influence of social support on child-parent relationships. In this study, 165 Chinese mothers of preschool-aged children were involved. The result indicated that Chinese mothers perceived moderate social support and closeness child-parent relationship. Moreover, social support is weak positively correlated to closeness relationship, whereas not related to conflict relationship. There is no significant influence of social support on child-parent relationship. This study would like to provides parents, educators, and the government with a preliminary picture of social support and child-parent relationship to develop a strategy to improve or adjust early childhood education.
Downloads
References
Ahmad, N., Awaluddin, S. M., Ismail, H., Samad, R., & NikAbdRashid, N. (2014). Sexual activity among Malaysian school-going adolescents: what are the risk and protective factors? Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 26(5_suppl), 44S-52S. https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539514544700
Aw, S., Widiarti, P. W., Setiawan, B., Mustaffa, N., Ali, M. N. S., & Hastasari, C. (2020). Parenting and sharenting communication for preventing juvenile delinquency. Inform, 50(2), 177–186.
Azharkamandi, A. (2018). Relationships between Self-esteem, Parent-child Relationship, Social Support and Life Satisfaction among Iranian Adolescents in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In Universiti Putra Malaysia (Vol. 2, Issue 2).
Azlina, K., Hui, T., & Daud, M. (2019). Parents’ Couple Relationship, Parent-Child Relationship and Emotion Regulation among Malaysian Children. Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, 10, 1394. https://doi.org/10.5958/0976-5506.2019.00908.2
Bate, J., Pham, P. T., & Borelli, J. L. (2021). Be My Safe Haven: Parent-Child Relationships and Emotional Health during COVID-19. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 46(6), 624–634. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsab046
Bradley, R., & Corwyn, R. (2002). Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual Review of Psychology53, 371–399.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard university press.
Callanan, M. A., Legare, C. H., Sobel, D. M., Jaeger, G. J., Letourneau, S., McHugh, S. R., Willard, A., Brinkman, A., Finiasz, Z., & Rubio, E. (2020). Exploration, explanation, and parent–child interaction in museums. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 85(1), 7–137.
Chen, Y. (2016). Chinese Parents’ Perspectives on Parenting: Children’s Education and Future Prospects. In Master’s thesis in Educational Sciences, University of Eastern Finland.
Chung, G., Lanier, P., Yuh, P., & Wong, J. (2020). Mediating Effects of Parental Stress on Harsh Parenting and Parent-Child Relationship during Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic in Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-020-00200-1
Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 310.
Demographics of Sabah. (n.d.). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Sabah#Chinese
Driscoll, K., & Pianta, R. C. (2011). Mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of conflict and childhood. Journal of Early Childhood and Infant Psychology, 7, 1–24.
Ee, A. C., & Arshat, Z. (2017). Parent-child relationship and depression among adolescents in Selangor, Malaysia. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention, 6(10), 61-65.
Dyer, W. J., Kaufman, R., & Fagan, J. (2017). Father–child closeness and conflict: Validating measures for nonresident fathers. Journal of Family Psychology, 31(8), 1074. http://doi.org/1037/fam0000384
Escalante-Barrios, E. L., Suarez-Enciso, S. M., Raikes, H., Davis, D., Garcia, A., Gonen, M., Veziroglu-Celik, M., & Hazar, R. G. (2020). Child-parent interactions in American and Turkish families: Examining measurement invariance analysis of child-parent relationship scale. PLoS ONE, 15(4), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230831
Fanti, K. A., & Henrich, C. C. (2010). Trajectories of pure and co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems from age 2 to age 12: findings from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. Developmental Psychology, 46(5), 1159.
Flykt, M. (2014). Prenatal representations predicting parent-child relationship in transition to parenthood: Risk and family dynamic considerations. Journal of Family Psychology 23(6):779-89. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0016468
Gambin, M., Woźniak-Prus, M., Sękowski, M., Cudo, A., Pisula, E., Kiepura, E., Boruszak-Kiziukiewicz, J., & Kmita, G. (2020). Factors related to positive experiences in parent-child relationship during the COVID-19 lockdown. The role of empathy, emotion regulation, parenting self-efficacy and social support. The Role of Empathy, Emotion Regulation, 4(1).
Green, B. L., Furrer, C., & McAllister, C. (2007). How do relationships support parenting? Effects of attachment style and social support on parenting behavior in an at-risk population. American Journal of Community Psychology, 40(1–2), 96–108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9127-y
Horstman, H. K., Hays, A., & Maliski, R. (2016). Parent–child interaction. In Oxford research encyclopedia of communication.
Huang, X. qian, Zhang, H., & Chen, S. (2019). Neuropsychiatric Symptoms, Parenting Stress and Social Support in Chinese Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Current Medical Science, 39(2), 291–297. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-019-2033-3
Khodarahimi, S., Hashim, I. H. M., & Mohd-Zaharim, N. (2016). Attachment styles, perceived stress and social support in a Malaysian young adults sample. In Psychologica Belgica (Vol. 56, Issue 1, pp. 65–79). https://doi.org/10.5334/pb.320
Kosnin, A. M., Hui, T. C., & Daud, M. Z. (2019). Parents' Couple Relationship, Parent-Child Relationship and Emotion Regulation among Malaysian Children. Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.5958/0976-5506.2019.00908.2
Laible, D. J., & Thompson, R. A. (2002). Mother–child conflict in the toddler years: Lessons in emotion, morality, and relationships. Child development, 73(4), 1187-1203.https://doi.org/ 10.1111/1467-8624.00466
Lei, X., & Kantor, J. (2021). Social Support and Family Functioning in Chinese Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 3504. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073504
Li, X., & Liu, Q. (2020). Parent–grandparent coparenting relationship, marital conflict and parent–child relationship in Chinese parent–grandparent coparenting families. Children and Youth Services Review, 109(August 2019), 104733. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104733
Lincoln, C. R., Russell, B. S., Donohue, E. B., & Racine, L. E. (2017). Mother-child interactions and preschoolers’ emotion regulation outcomes: Nurturing autonomous emotion regulation. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26(2), 559–573.
Liu, H., Qiu, Y., & Luo, L. (2022). Exploring family educational involvement and social skills in Chinese preschoolers: The moderating role of parent-child relationship. Frontiers in Psychology, 13(August), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.911421
Lu, M. H., Wang, G. H., Lei, H., Shi, M. L., Zhu, R., & Jiang, F. (2018). Social Support as Mediator and Moderator of the Relationship Between Parenting Stress and Life Satisfaction Among the Chinese Parents of Children with ASD. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48(4), 1181–1188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3448-y
Ma, C. (2020). Measurement Invariance of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support Among Chinese and South Asian Ethnic Minority Adolescents in Hong Kong. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.596737
Ma, J. L. C., Lai, K. Y. C., & Lo, J. W. K. (2017). Perceived social support in Chinese parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in a Chinese context: Implications for social work practice. Social Work in Mental Health, 15(1), 28–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2016.1159643
McGuire-Schwartz, M. E. (2007). Relationships Between Family and Social Support and Mother–Child Bonds1. Journal of Children and Poverty, 13(2), 133–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/10796120701520259
Ng, C. G., Amer Siddiq, A. N., Aida, S. A., Zainal, N. Z., & Koh, O. H. (2010). Validation of the Malay version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS-M) among a group of medical students in Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 3(1), 3–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2009.12.001
Nguyen, H. T. (2013). The role of social support, parent-child relationship quality and self-concept on adolescent depression, achievement, and social satisfaction among children who experience the death of a family member. University of the Pacific.
Pianta, R. C. (1992). Child–Parent Relationship Scale. University of Virginia.
Driscoll, K., & Pianta, R. C. (1992). Child-parent relationship scale. Journal of Early Childhood and Infant Psychology.
Riany, Y. E., Cuskelly, M., & Meredith, P. (2017). Parenting Style and Parent–Child Relationship: A Comparative Study of Indonesian Parents of Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26(12), 3559–3571. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0840-3
Russo, G. (2019). Examination of the Relationships Among Perceived Social Support, Parent-Infant Bonding, and Parent Mental Health in the 3 to 12 Months Following the Birth of a Child. In ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. http://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fdocview%2F2299502879%3Faccountid%3D14771%0Ahttp://bf4dv7zn3u.search.serialssolutions.com?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/ProQuest+Dissertations+
Saifuddin, A. B. A., Lian, T. C., Chong, L. P., & Bonn, G. (2019). Examining social support and its relation to worry in Malaysia. Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology (Vol. 13). https://doi.org/10.1017/prp.2019.18
Sears, R. R. (1951). A theoretical framework for personality and social behavior. American Psychologist, 6(9), 476.
Siklos, S., & Kerns, K. A. (2006). Assessing need for social support in parents of children with autism and Down syndrome. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 36(7), 921-933. https://doi.org/10.3109/13668250.2015.1023707
Su, C., & Hynie, M. (2011). Effects of life stress, social support, and cultural norms on parenting styles among mainland Chinese, European Canadian, and Chinese Canadian immigrant mothers. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42(6), 944–962. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110381124
Wu, S. L., & Yaacob, S. N. (2017). Self‐efficacy as a mediator of the relationship between parental closeness and suicidal ideation among Malaysian adolescents. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 22(2), 84–90.
Xu, L., Liu, L., Li, Y., Liu, L., & Huntsinger, C. S. (2018). Parent–child relationships and Chinese children’s social adaptations: Gender difference in parent–child dyads. Personal Relationships, 25(4), 462–479. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12254
Yap Ching Ching. (2015). Relationships between gender, child temperament, parent-child relationship and behavior problems among preschool children in Kuala Lumpur [Master thesis, Universiti Putra Malaysia]. http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/58240
Zhang, M., Zhang, J., Zhang, F., Zhang, L., & Feng, D. (2018). Prevalence of psychological distress and the effects of resilience and perceived social support among Chinese college students: Does gender make a difference? Psychiatry Research, 267, 409–413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.06.038
Zimet GD, Dahlem NW, Zimet SG, & Farley GK. (1988). Zimet. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52(1), 30–41.
