Social Support and Parenting Self-Efficacy Among Asian American Families: Associations with Parental Nurturance

Flexible, engaged, and emotionally expressive childrearing known as nurturing or positive parenting has been linked to secure attachment in children, improved self-esteem, increased cognitive development, increased prosocial behaviors, reduced aggression, reduced parent child conflicts and higher earning capacity as adults. However, existing studies show that Asian Americans compared to White Americans are lower on positive parenting. Because nurturing childhood is a requisite for successful adulthoods, factors contributing to parental nurturance must be understood. Additionally, more studies among Asian Americans, especially in the East Coast of the US, is warranted as this group is growing faster than any other immigrant groups and account for the largest share of foreign born children in the US.

The current study used data from the Survey of Asian American Families (SAAF) which was conducted in two phases from 2011 to 2014 among Asian American parents who had one or more children under age 18 living in the same household in New York and New Jersey. Only one parent from each family particiapted in the study and the majority of the study participants were mothers. The SAAF used a convenience sampling method and collaborated with social service agencies, churches, temples, and other service providers to recruit most of the participants (n=734). SAAF included detailed information on parenting behaviors, social support, cultural values, acculturation, and family demographics about 11 Asian ethnic groups. 

Using multivariate regressions, this study examined whether social support promoted parental nurturance and whether parenting self-efficacy mediated the relationship between social support and parental nurturance, controlling for ethnic groups, family socio-economic status, parental characteristics, child characteristics, cultural values, and acculturation levels. The results revealed that family support significantly predicted parental nurturance. Diverging from the existing literature, partner or friends support were not significant predictors of nurturance among Asian Americans. Parenting self-efficacy also had a significant relationship with parental nurturance. Mediation analysis showed that parenting self-efficacy was a significant mediator in the relationship between family support and parental nurturance. Approximately 23% of the effect of family support on parental nurturance could be explained by the effect of family support on parenting self-efficacy, which in turn increased parental nurturance.

In conclusion, this study provided new information about the important role of family support in promoting parental nurturance among Asian Americans and the mediating role of parenting self-efficacy. These results suggest several important implications. First, family support advances child wellbeing among the rapidly growing Asian American population. The priority of family support over partner and friends support for both fathers and mothers appears unique to this population. Second, the predominance of family support points to the need of separately examining different types of social support in nurturance research. Third, parenting self-efficacy also contributes to child wellbeing. This information is important because parenting efficacy can be improved through performance accomplishments and verbal persuasions.