Liu Qinghua

Having a strong cultural identity and sense of belonging is essential for children’s wellbeing and long-term life outcomes. However, children from culturally diverse backgrounds bring a complex set...

Early literacy skills develop in the home environment with parenting approaches and the relationships between parents and children serving as the main influencing factors. This study examines the impact of parenting styles and child-parent relationships on the home literacy environment (HLE) among Chinese preschoolers in Malaysia. 385 mothers of Chinese preschoolers from Kota Kinabalu participated in a survey through questionnaires whereby key variables were assessed. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation and multiple regression analyses were utilized to analyze data. The descriptive findings indicated that most mothers had adopted an authoritarian parenting approach, perceived a close relationship with their child and reported a high level of HLE with their Chinese preschoolers. Furthermore, Pearson's correlation analysis revealed that there was neither a significant relationship between HLE and parenting approaches nor with the child-parent relationship. Hence, there are no substantial influences of parenting styles and child-parent relationships on HLE. These findings underscore the empirical evidence of family and community factors on early childhood home literacy environment outcomes. This study provides valuable insights for teachers, parents and policymakers to design targeted interventions.

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.