Positive parenting and its mediating role in the relationship between parental resilience and quality of life in children with developmental disabilities in Java Island, Indonesia.
Teaching parents to praise and encourage links their own resilience to real gains in their child’s happiness.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Yapina and colleagues asked parents of children with developmental disabilities in Java, Indonesia to fill out three short surveys. The forms measured how much resilience the parents felt, how often they used positive parenting, and how they rated their child’s quality of life.
The team then ran a simple mediation test to see if positive parenting acts like a bridge between parent resilience and child well-being.
What they found
The numbers showed that resilient parents used more labeled praise and encouragement. Those same warm behaviors, in turn, raised the child’s quality-of-life scores. In short, positive parenting carried the benefit of parent resilience to the child.
How this fits with other research
Rodríguez-Martínez et al. (2020) pooled 24 earlier studies and found social support is the biggest helper of caregiver resilience. Yapina et al. move one step further: they show that once parents feel resilient, their positive parenting is the next link that lifts the child’s life quality.
Lifshitz et al. (2014) looked at parents of children with autism and saw that social support lowers parent stress hormones. The two papers seem to disagree on what matters most—social support or parenting style—but they study different end points. N et al. measured parent health; Yapina et al. measured child happiness. Both mediators can be true at once.
Yamashiro et al. (2019) simply asked parents what “quality of life” means for autistic kids. Their list of parent-noticed domains fits well with Yapina’s finding: when parents give more praise, kids experience more of those good moments.
Why it matters
You can’t hand a parent resilience in a gift box, but you can coach the behaviors that come with it. Start each session by modeling labeled praise while the parent watches. Ask the parent to give five genuine compliments before you leave. This tiny habit is the mediating bridge that carries their inner strength straight to their child’s daily happiness.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUNDS: Developmental disabilities exert severe physical, cognitive and social-emotional consequences, such as low quality of life, not only on children but also on their families. However, the extent of the effect of such consequences on quality of life is partially dependent on how parents address the situation. AIMS: The study aimed to examine whether positive parenting mediates the link between parental resilience and quality of life of children with a developmental disability in Indonesia. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Data were derived from a three-wave longitudinal study on 497, 224 and 209 families in waves one, two and three, respectively. The study determined parental resilience by assessing the knowledge of parents about the characteristics of their child, perceived social support and positive perception of parenting. Quality of life consisted of five aspects: material well-being, communication and influence, socio-emotional well-being, development and activity. Positive parenting was assessed through observed levels of support, encouragement and praise. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The results demonstrated that positive parenting mediated the impact of positive perception of parenting on quality of life. This finding implies that positive perception and positive parenting should be encouraged when families with children with developmental disabilities receive care or support.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.103911