S’pore study links positive maternal well-being to stronger cognitive abilities in pre-school children

Singapore study links positive maternal well-being to stronger cognitive abilities in preschool children through healthier parenting styles. Read more at straitstimes.com.

SINGAPORE – Mothers with a positive sense of mental well-being tend to adopt healthier parenting styles, based on setting boundaries and communication, a Singapore study has found. Such an approach to parenting, in turn, is associated with stronger cognitive development in pre-school-age children.

Conversely, the study found that mothers with poor mental well-being tended to adopt either a harsher or a more lenient parenting style, both of which were associated with more behavioural difficulties in pre-school children.

Children in the first group, coming from homes where parents are both authoritative and explain the rules that they set, have fewer behavioural difficulties, such as being unable to sit still or make friends.

Crucially, researchers found that positive and negative mental health operate largely independently – meaning that treating depression in a mother does not automatically boost her positive mental health.

Given these findings, the study done by the A*STAR Institute for Human Development and Potential (IHDP) recommended that public health initiatives go beyond treating mental disorders to actively promote and support positive maternal mental health, as this could enhance effective parenting and optimise cognitive outcomes for children.

Authoritative parenting, said the authors, is characterised by warmth and reasoning, and is democratically participative.