Early Maternal Parenting Profiles and Subsequent Child Well‐Being in an Asian Cohort

ABSTRACT Objective To identify parenting profiles among Singaporean mothers of young children and to examine the longitudinal implications of these profiles for children's well‐being during middle childhood. Background The universality of traditional parenting styles (e.g., authoritative, authoritarian), established in Western contexts, and their implications for child well‐being, has been called into question, with studies conducted with Asian populations suggesting these styles may not be universally applicable. Method Our sample consisted of 411 mother–child dyads drawn from a prebirth cohort in Singapore, where mothers reported on their parenting at child age 4.5 years, and children reported on their evaluation of their mothers' parenting and their own depressive symptoms at ages 9 and 10 years, respectively. Results Three latent class profiles of maternal parenting emerged at child age 4.5 years: Supportive (high use of supportive practices and low use of harsh practices), Supportive‐Harsh (high use of both supportive and harsh practices), and Unsupportive (moderate use of both supportive and harsh practices). Children of Unsupportive mothers reported greater maternal indifference at age 9 years and depressive symptoms at age 10 years compared to children of Supportive or Supportive‐Harsh mothers. Children's evaluation of maternal indifference mediated the association between early maternal parenting profiles and later child depressive symptoms. Conclusion Our findings highlight the variation in parenting profiles in Singapore from well‐established parenting styles, and the greater implications of supportive, compared to harsh, parenting practices for children's well‐being.