Chill Parents Make for Cool Kids
Published: 27 Feb 2024
A chip of the old block – this old saying takes on new significance in 21st century Singaporean homes, where research shows that when parents exercise self-control, do not wrestle with economic or financial difficulties, set clear rules and enforce them frequently, use less harsh punishment, and communicate clearly and effectively, their children will be more mentally empowered and less emotionally stressed under adversity.
The research findings from the Singapore Longitudinal EArly Development Study (SG-LEADS), led by Research Fellow Dr Chen Luxi and Prof Jean Yeung Wei-Jun from the Human Potential Translational Research Programme at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), showed that building a wide array of resources in parents, family, and community before stressful circumstances strike can improve children’s resilience and alleviate their emotional symptoms such as anxiety, depression and withdrawal during times of adversity.
The research team studied over 2,600 young children in Singapore across two time periods – Wave One in 2018-2019 before the COVID-19 outbreak and Wave Two in 2021 during the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
These child participants were aged between 3 and 6 before the Covid-19 outbreak and were tracked until the second year of the pandemic outbreak. There was a noted increase in emotional symptoms such as sadness, anxiety, fear, and withdrawal among the children, from pre-pandemic periods to during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before the Covid-19 outbreak, the research team measured the primary caregivers’ verbal cognitive ability, self-control, economic stress and parenting strategies, including how much control they set for their children. These primary caregivers also rated the safety and cohesion in their neighbourhood.
The team then went on to assess the children’s self-regulation using the Delay of Gratification (DoG) task, which captures children’s ability to inhibit the temptation of smaller immediate rewards in order to get larger delayed rewards. Three types of rewards, including balloons, stickers and erasers, were used.
Each child was asked to choose to receive either one reward now or more rewards later after the game which would take about 10 minutes. Children’s ability to forgo instant gratification and pursue larger long-term goals is an important aspect of self-regulation. These factors are deemed important resources to shape children’s resilience to cope with changing situations.
Parent-child interactions are important processes that influence children’s development of self-regulation during early childhood. Setting boundaries and limits accompanied by guidance, instructions, discussions and encouragement can aid the child in cultivating self-regulating behaviours early. This further alleviates the exacerbation of emotional symptoms over time.
On the other spectrum, harsh disciplinary strategies such as aggressive control, physical punishment and criticism that aims to restrict children’s behaviour have been consistently associated with more mental health issues in children.
The research also explored the role of community resources in nurturing children’s emotional resilience and mental health. It was found that children who lived in a safer neighbourhood with stronger cohesion and greater social support before the Covid-19 pandemic showed fewer emotional symptoms during the pandemic and experienced less aggravation of internalising problems over time.
Read the media release here.
