Multigenerational care or parental care? Familial care types, social –emotional development and mediation of parent–child relationship of single‐parent children in mainland China

This study investigated the associations between familial care types and single-parent children's SED, and the possible pathways through the mediation of parent–child relationship. This study analysed 431 single-parent children (50.0% girls) dra wn from a local database with a total of 2507 children studying in Grades 4 to 8. We compared the SED of single-parent children in multigenerational care and those in parental care. We then tested the possible mediating effect of parent–child relationship between familial care types and childr en's SED. The study found that there were no deficits in the SED of single-parent children in multigenerational care compared with those in parental care. Multigenerational care had no direct relationship with the SED of single-parent children after the mediator of the parent–child relationship  was entered. The parent–child relationship mediated the associations between familial care types and four dimensions of the single-parent children's SED. These findings provided support for multigenerational and parental care, and also directions for family care strategies and developing soci al service programmes to promote the SED of single-parent children in China.

Source: Child and Family Social Work - February 23, 2023 Category: Child Development Authors: Miao Wang, Yao Fan, Qingzhu Zhang, Qian Sun, Guowei Wan, Jun Sung Hong Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research