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PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 4(1): 29-39 (1996)ISS -:
0128-7702
© Penerbit Universiti Pertanian Malaysia
Ecological Predictors of the Parenting Behaviour of Malay
Mothers
ROZUMAH BAHARUDIDepartment of Family Development Studies
Faculty of Human EcologyUniversiti Pertanian Malaysia
43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Keywords: parenting behaviour, lIlaternal characteristics, child
characteristics, familycontext, child-care, hOlIle
enviroUlIlent
ABSTRAK
Objektif utama kajian ini adalah untuk mengenalpasti faktor yang
berkaitan dengan kualiti tingkah lakukeibubapaan di kalangan ibu
Melayu. Sampel kajian terdiri daripada 128 ibu Melayu bersama anak
merekayang berumur di anrara 8 hingga 9 tahun, yang telah dipilih
secara persampelan sistematik untuk kajian ini.Data telah
dikumpulkan secara temubual dan pemerhatian di rumah responden.
Kualiti tingkah lakukeibubapaan telah diukur menggunakan 'Home
Observation for Measurement of the Environment(HOME) (Caldwell dan
Bradley 1984). Hasil kajian menunjukkan terdapat perkaitan di
antara ciri ibu, cirianak dan faktor kontekstual dengan tingkah
laku keibubapaan ibu Melayu. lbu yang mempunyai tahappendidikan,
penghargaan kendiri dan pendapatan keluarga yang lebih tinggi
menunjukkan tingkah lakukeibubapaan yang lebih berkualiti
berbanding dengan ibu lain dalam kajian. Walau bagaimanapun,
ibuyang mempunyai bilangan anak yang ramai dan mempunyai persepsi
bahawa anak sukar untuk dijagamenunjukkan tingkah laku keibubapaan
yang kurang menyokong. Hasil daripada kajian ini menunjukkanbahawa
pelbagai faktor dalam ekologi keluarga bergabung untuk mempengaruhi
kualiti penjagaan ibubapaterhadap anak. Hasil kajian ini mempunyai
implikasi penting untuk perancangan program keibubapaandan
pendidikan kehidupan keluarga.
ABSTRACT
The primary purpose of this study was to identify factors
related to the quality of the parenting behaviour ofMalay mothers.
The sample comprised 128 Malay mothers with children aged 8 to 9
years. The respondentswere identified using a systematic sampling
procedure. Data were collected by interviews and observation inthe
homes of the respondents. Parenting behaviour was assessed using
the Home Observation forMeasurement of the Environment (HOME)
(Caldwell and Bradley 1984). Results of the study show thatmaternal
characteristics, child characteristics, and contextual factors are
all related to the parentingbehaviour Malay mothers provide for
their school-age children. Mothers with higher levels of education,
self-esteem, and family income showed better quality parenting than
other mothers in the study. However,mothers with a larger number of
children, and those who perceive their children as difficult to
care fordemonstrated less supportive parenting behaviour. Findings
from the study suggest that numerous factorswithin the ecology of
the family may combine to influence the quality of care parents
provide for theirchildren. The findings, therefore, have important
implications for planning parenting and family lifeeducation
programmes.
INTRODUCTION
Numerous studies have documented theinfluence of parenting
practices on children'scognitive and socio-emotional
development(Rollins and Thomas 1979; Maccoby andMartin 1983).
However, very few studies havefocused on why parents rear their
children theway they do. Thus, the central question
addressed by the present study is why parentsdiffer in their
approaches to child-rearing.
According to Belsky (1984) the quaiity ofcare that parents
provide for their children isinfluenced by multiple factors within
afamily's ecosystem. Belsky suggested thatthese factors could be
grouped into threebroad categories: maternal characteristics,
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Rozumah Baharudin
contextual factors and child characteristics.Of the three
factors, Belsky argued thatparent's personal characteristics are
the mostimportant factor, followed by social supportand
characteristics of the child.
Belsky predicted that a child would bemore likely to experience
low quality care oran unsupportive home environment if hisparents
lack personal resources, his family isin high levels of stress and
low social support,and he is perceived by his parents as
difficultto care for. Although the three sets of factorsinteract in
systematic ways to influenceparental behaviour, Belsky argued that
theyare not equally influential. Stress in onesubsystem may be
buffered by support inother systems.
All three ecological factors in Belsky'sprocess model of
parenting were used in thisstudy as predictors of parenting
behaviour.The maternal characteristics focused on inthis study
included age, level of educationand self-esteem. Consistent with
past researchon parenting, the present study expects thatmothers
would provide a higher qualityrearing environment if they were
older andhad higher levels of education and self-esteem. umerous
studies found that oldermothers were more satisfied with
theirparenting role and demonstrated moreoptimal parental behaviour
than youngermothers (Field et at. 1980; King and Fullard1982;
Ragozin et at. 1982).
Parents with higher educational qualifi-cations have been found
to have positiveparental values (Kohn 1963; Luster andRhoades
1989). They are also more likely tovalue educational activities and
structuretheir home environment in ways that arecognitively
stimulating for their children(Caldwell and Bradley 1984; Gottfried
andGottfried 1984; Menaghan and Parcel 1991).In addition, past
studies have indicated thatparents with high self-esteem construct
betterquality home environments and behavepositively toward their
children (Luster andDubow 1990; Hannan and Luster 1991;Menaghan and
Parcel 1991). A positive self-regard and maternal behaviour are
likely toproduce favourable outcomes in children(Ricks 1985; Small
1988).
The contextual factors examined in thisstudy were family income,
number of chil-dren, and marital quality. Research hasconsistently
shown that low-income parents,on average, provide less cognitively
stimulat-ing home environments than middle- or high-income parents
(Elder and Caspi 1988;Luster and Dubow 1990; Hannan andLuster 1991;
Menaghan and Parcel 1991).Living in poverty can produce life
stressesthat may affect parental behaviour. Thequality of care the
parents provide may alsobe affected by the number of children in
thefamily. Families with fewer children havebeen shown to provide a
more supportivehome environment than families with manychildren
(Blake 1989; Luster and Dubow1990; Menaghan and Parcel 1991).
For a variety ofreasons, one would expectthat parents with a
satisfying, supportivemarital relationship would provide a
moreresponsive and affective climate in the homethan those in
unsatisfying marriages (Belskyet at. 1984; Easterbrooks and Emde
1988;Simons et at. 1990). Belsky (1984) argued thatthe marital
relationship is the principalsupport system for parents. Thus,
parentswith good marriages will provide betterquality
parenting.
The third factor in Belsky's model of thedeterminants of
parenting is the character-istics of the child. The present study
focusedon three child characteristics: age, gender,and difficulty
level. Past studies have shownthat parents change their
child-rearingbehaviour as their children mature (Robertset at.
1984; Steinberg 1987). However, morerecent findings indicated that
the child's agehad no effect on parental behaviour (Hannanand
Luster 1991; McNally et at. 1991).
The child's gender has been found tohave an inconsistent effect
on parents. Someresearchers have found that parents
interactdifferently with their sons and daughters(Bronfenbrenner et
at. 1984; Bradley et at.1988), while others have found the
child'sgender has Ii ttle effect on the quali ty of thehome
environment (Hannan and Luster1991; Menaghan and Parcel 1991).
Consistent with Belsky's (1984) model,the present study expects
that a child's
30 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 4 No.1, 1996
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Ecological Predictors of the Parenting Behaviour of Malay
Mothers
chances of experiencing a low-quality homeenvironment are higher
if he/she displays abehavioural style that makes him/her hard
toparent. Recent studies found that childrenwith a difficult
temperament received lesssupportive care than easier children
(Hannanand Luster 1991; Simons et al. 1990).
The primary purpose of this study was topredict factors related
to the quality of caremothers provide for their 8- to
9-year-oldchildren. More specifically, the study deter-mined what
maternal characteristics (age,level of education and self-esteem),
contextualfactors (family income, number of children,and marital
quality), and child characteristics(age, gender, and difficulty
level) influencemothers' parenting behaviour. The presentstudy
differs from earlier studies in that itexamined the combined
effects of parent,child, and contextual factors on parenting ina
single study. This approach is consistentwith the ecological
perspective on parent-child interaction (Bronfenbrenner 1979;
Bels-ky 1984; Bubolz and Sontag 1993), whichsuggest that numerous
factors within theecosystem of the family may
simultaneouslyinfluence the way parents behave towardstheir
children.
METHODOLOGYSubjects
The sample for the study was 128 mothersand their 8-to
9-year-old children fromBandar Tun Razak, Cheras, Kuala Lum-pur.
These mothers were systematicallyselected via children in Standard
2 and 3 ofSekolah Kebangsaan Bandar Tun Razak I.Table I shows the
background characteristicsof the sample.
The mean age of the 128 motherssampled was 39.0 years; the age
range was27-52 years. The number of years of educa-tion completed
by the mothers ranged from 0to 18 years; the average was 8.7 years
ofeducation (i.e., secondary-level education).Most (97.5 %) of the
mothers were married,and were not employed (55.7%) outside thehome
at the time of the study. Those whowere employed engaged in a
variety ofoccupations. Clerical workers formed the
largest group (16.4%). Employed mothersreported an average
income of $408 permonth. The mean family income of thesample was
determined by combining theincome of the mother and her spouse
withother financial resources they received (suchas from their
employed children or part-timejobs) per month was RMI429.60.
The average number of children in thefamily was 4.9, with a
range from 2 to II. Thenumber of male and female children in
thisstudy were almost equal. Their. ages rangedfrom 90 to 100
months with a mean of 93.9months (7.8 years).
Dependent Variables
The mother's parenting behaviour wasassessed using the
elementary version of theHome Observation for Measurement of
theEnvironment (HOME) developed by Cald-well and Bradley (1984).
The HOME wasdesigned to measure the quality of children'srearing
environment by means of directobservation and interviews with
parents. Ingeneral, the HOME assessed how parentsorganized the
physical (e.g., books and otherlearning materials in the home), and
thesocial environment (e.g., parent reading to achild, use of
physical punishment) of thehome for their children. The HOME
scalecontains 59 items divided into eight subscales:I. emotional
and verbal responsivity, 2.encouragement of maturity, 3.
emotionalclimate, 4. growth fostering materials andexperiences, 5.
provision for active stimula-tion, 6. family participation in
developmen-tally stimulating experiences, 7. paternalinvolvement,
and 8. aspects of the physicalenvironment. Each item is scored "I"
forpresence of quality stimulation in the home,and "0" for absence
of quality stimulation.All the items in the HOME are added
toproduce a total score, with higher scoresindicating the
availability of high qualitystimulation in the home.
HOME has been used in several coun-tries, and with a variety of
ethnic groups(Bradley et al. 1989). Caldwell and Bradleyreported a
reliability coefficient of .90 for theelementary version of the
HOME. Cronba-ch's alpha for this measure in the present
PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 4No. 1, 1996 31
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Rozumah Baharudin
TABLE 1Descriptive statistics of sample (n = 128) and predictor
variables
% Mean Std. Dev.
Maternal CharacteristicsAge 39.0 5.2Years of education 8.7
3.3Self-esteem 28.6 2.2Marital status:
Married 97.5Divorced 2.5
Occupation:Professional and Technical 2.5Administrative and Mgt
5.5Clerk 16.4Sales 5.5Services 9.0Self-employed 4.5Unemployed
55.7
Contextual FactorsFamily income RM1429.6 RMl097.5Number of
children 4.9 1.9Marital happiness 2.3 0.5Marital communication 10.6
1.6Marital conflict 28.7 5.1
Child CharacteristicsAge (in months) 93.9 9.9Gender: Male
49.3
Female 50.7Difficul ty level 1.8 0.4
HOME Inventory Scores 41.7 6.3
study was 0.77. This indicates that theHOME is generally
acceptable in measuringthe quality of care the Malaysian
respondentsprovide for their children. The mean score onthe HOME
for' this sample was 41.7 (SD =6.3), with a range of 23 to 54.
Independent Variables
Three maternal characteristics were examined inthe study: 1.
Mother's age - her age at thetime of the interview. 2. Level of
education -the number of years of formal educationcompleted by the
mother. 3. Self-esteem -mother's score on the Rosenberg (1965)
10-item self-esteem scale; an established measurewith evidence of
validity and reliability(Baker and Mott 1989). The self-esteem
scale was designed to measure an indivi-dual's feeling of
self-worth. The respondentindicates whether he or she strongly
agrees,disagrees or strongly disagrees with each itemon the scale.
A sample item is, "I am ascapable as others". A high score on this
scaleindicates high/positive self-esteem. Reliabilityanalysis found
an alpha of .52 for this scale forthe present study sample. Scores
ranged from20 to 36, with a mean of 28.6 (SD = 2.2).
Three contextual factors included in theanalyses were: 1. Family
income - thecombined monthly income of the motherand her spouse and
other financial resourcesthe family received (such as from
theiremployed children or part-time jobs). 2.Number of children -
the number of children
32 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 4 No.1, 1996
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Ecological Predictors of the Parenting Behaviour of Malay
Mothers
living with the mother. 3. Marital quality -assessed using three
sets of items: maritalhappiness, marital communication and mar-ital
conflict (Baker and Mott 1989). Maritalhappiness was the mother's
assessment of hermarital relationship, from I (not too happy)to 3
(very happy). The study found thatmarital happiness correlated
significantlywith marital communication (r = .47, P <.001), and
marital conflict (r = -.38, p <.00 I). Marital communication was
mother'sscore on 3 items concerning her pattern ofcommunication
with her husband. Responsesto these items ranged from I (less than
once amonth) to 4 (almost every day). A sampleitem is, "How often
do you and your husbandtell each other about your day?" A
cronbachalpha of. 70 was found for this scale. Maritalconflict was
assessed using 9 items withresponses ranging from 1 (never) to
4(often). A sample item is, "How often doyou and your husband argue
about choresand responsibilities?" Coefficient alpha forthis scale
was. 74. The decision to use separateindicators of marital quality
was assured bythe smaller reliability coefficient (.61) of allthe
13 marital quality items combined.
Three child characteristics were includedin the analyses of this
study: I. Age of child -the child's current age in months. 2.
Genderof child - recorded as 1 (male) or 0 (female).3. Difficulty
level - the mother's response to aquestion regarding how 'easy' or
'difficult' itwas to raise her child. Responses to this itemranged
from 'very easy to raise' to 'verydifficult to raise' (Simons et
al. 1990). A highscore on this measure indicates that the childis
perceived by the mother as being difficult tocare for.
RESULTS
Relations Among the Predictor Variables
Although determining the extent of associa-tions among the
predictor variables was notone of the objectives of the study, it
wasinteresting to find that there were severalsignificant
correlations among the variables.Table 2 shows the results of the
correlationalanalyses computed among the predictor
variables. Generally the correlations amongthe variables were
low to moderate in magni-tude. The signs of the correlation
coefficientswere typically in the expected direction.
Consistent with expectations, motherswho completed more years of
education hadhigher family income, higher levels of self-esteem and
fewer children than mothers whocompleted fewer years of education.
Thesemothers were also found to be younger, andtended to have
younger children than the lesseducated mothers.
Results of the analyses also show thatmothers who obtained more
favourable scoreson the self-esteem scale tended to be happierin
their marriage and have good communica-tions with their spouse.
These mothers alsoperceived their child as 'easy' to care
forcompared to mothers with lower self-esteem.
As expected, mothers who were unhappyin their marriage
experienced more mari talconflict than other mothers in the
study.Mothers with an unhappy marital relation-ship were also shown
to communicate lesswell with their husbands. In addition,
theresults show that the mothers tended toperceive their child as
difficult to care forwhen they were more involved in
maritalconflict.
Correlates of Parenting Behaviour
Table 3 presents the zero-order correlationsbetween each of the
predictor variables andthe quality of the mothers' parenting
beha-viour as assessed by HOME. Small tomoderate correlations were
found betweenthe predictor variables and the dependentvariable. Of
all the predictor variablesincluded in the analyses, only
mothers'education, self-esteem, family income andnumber of children
were significantly relatedto the mothers' parenting behaviour.
These findings show that at the bivariatelevel, mothers who
provided a better qualityhome environment had higher levels
ofeducation and self-esteem. Mothers whoscored higher on the HOME
also had ahigher family income. Furthermore, thesemothers had fewer
children.
PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 4 No.1, 1996 33
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TABLE 2Relations among predictor variables
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II
I. Age of mother 1.00
2. Years of ed ucation -.39*** 1.00
3. Self-esteem -.17 .21 * 1.00"0
" 4. Family income -.14 .56*** .16 1.00..,,;::l 5. Number of
children .38*** -.22* -.10 -.25** 1.00~'"L..; 6. Marital happiness
-.05 .08 .32** .04 .06 1.00(f)
~0 7. Marital communication -.04 .05 .23** .12 -.10 .21 *
1.00!"' 0N(f) ~
o. 8. Marital conflict .05 -.02 -.17 .01 -.05 -.25*** -.03 1.00
a"'Fi" ::r
::r: 9. Age of child (in months) .22* -.13 .05 .09 .04 .08.10
.09 1.00 ttl
"'" 10. Gender of child -.05 .21 * .07 .12 .12 .08 .10 -.01 -.15
1.00 ::r? "';;
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Ecological Predictors of the Parenting Behaviour of Malay
Mothers
TABLE 3Zero-order correlations between predictor variables and
HOME
Variables
Maternal CharacteristicsAge -.0 I .909Years of
educationSelf-esteem
Contextual FactorsFamily incomeNumber of childrenMarital
happinessMarital communicationMarital conflict
Child CharacteristicsAgeGenderDifficulty level
r
.23**.18*
.25**-.27**
.05
.14-.06
-.07.04
.16+
HOME
p
.008
.040
.005
.002
.556
.112
.485
.459
.676
.063
Note: Gender of child is a dummy variable coded as 0 = female, I
= male. + p < .10, •P <.05, ••P < .01
Multiple Predictors of Parenting Behaviour
As indicated earlier, multiple factors maycombine to influence
the way parents behavetowards their children. To examine
thecombined effects of the predictor variableson the outcome of
interest, and to identifywhich of the variables are related to
thedependent variable when other variables arecontrolled, several
multiple regression ana-lyses were conducted. A chance
probabilitylevel of less than .10 was used in theseanalyses to
reduce the risk of making a TypeII error (Kerlinger 1973;
Bronfenbrenner1979).
In the first series of the regressionanalyses, all independent
variables in eachof the three categories identified earlier
wereentered simultaneously. The results of theseanalyses are
presented in column 1 of Table4.
Two of the three maternal characteristicsincluded in the
analyses were found to bepredictive of the mothers' care-giving
beha-viour. Mothers with higher levels of educa-tion and
self-esteem scored higher on theHOME inventory. Age was not a
significant
predictor of the mothers' parenting behaviourwhen other maternal
characteristics werestatistically controlled. These predictor
vari-ables accounted for 8% of the variance in theHOME scores.
The five contextual factors accounted for12% of the variance in
the HOME scores.Levels of family income and number ofchildren in
the family were significantpredictors of maternal behaviour when
othercontextual factors were controlled. None ofthe marital quality
items was found to be asignificant predictor of HOME when
othercontextual factors were partialled out.
The difficulty level measure of the childwas the only
significant predictor of themother's parenting behaviour at the
.10level. Together, the child characteristicsaccoun ted for a very
small percentage (3 % )of the variance in the HOME scores.
To determine which of the five significantpredictors uniquely
contribute to the outcomevariable, a second set of regression
analysiswas computed. Column 2 in Table 4 showsresults of this
analysis. At the .10 level,number of children and level of
child's
PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 4No. 1, 1996 35
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Rozumah Baharudin
TABLE 4Multiple regression analyses: predictors of HOME
Variables HOME
Maternal CharacteristicsAgeYears of educationSelf-esteem
Contextual FactorsFamily incomeNumber of childrenMarital
happinessMarital communicationMarital conflict
Child CharacteristicsAge (in months)GenderDifficulty level
.11
.25**
.15+R 2 = .08
.18*-.21 *.02.09
-.07R 2 =.12
-.06.04
-.17 +R 2 = .03
.10
.15-.20*
Note: Gender of child is a dummy variable coded as 0 = female, I
= male. The first column shows thestandardized regression
coefficients that were obtained when variables in each of the three
categories ofpredictors were entered simultaneously. The second
column shows the standardized regressioncoefficients of the full
model. + p < .10, .p < .05, ••p < .0 I
difficulty to care for were significantly relatedto the mother's
parenting behaviour. The twovariables accounted for 14% of the
variancein the HOME scores. Overall, the regressionmodel's
performance was rather modest.
DISCUSSION
Findings from this study show that character-istics of the
mother, child and family are allrelated to the quality of care
Malay mothersprovide for their 8- to 9-year-old children.The
characteristics of the mother found to bepredictive of HOME when
other factors werecontrolled were levels of education and
self-esteem. Two contextual variables that weresignificant
predictors of HOME were familyincome and number of children. The
child'scharacteristic that uniquely contributed tothe mothers' HOME
scores was the child'slevel of difficulty. Results of this study
are,therefore, consistent with Belsky's ecologicalview of parenting
which indicates that
individual differences in parenting are multi-ply determined. In
addition, the findingsparallel those of earlier investigations on
thefactors that shape parental behaviour.
Based on the results, the present studyemphasizes the importance
of considering thecharacteristics of the parent, the child, andthe
context in which the parent and childinteract when working with
families. Thisconsideration is necessary to ensure thatefforts at
changing parenting behaviour andenhancing family functioning can be
trulyeffective. Furthermore, examining severalpoten tial influences
of parental behaviourconcurrently may help those who work
withfamilies (e.g., counsellors, family life educa-tors, community
development agents) toeasily identify which parents are at risk
forsuboptimal parenting (Luster and Okagaki1993). Less supportive
parents can, therefore,be helped as early as possible. In
addition,parenting programmes will be more appro-
36 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 4 No.1, 1996
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Ecological Predictors of the Parenting Behaviour of Malay
Mothers
priately and effectively designed if based on amore global
understanding of the wholefamily system and its interaction with
theenvironment. Such ecologically designedparenting education will
recognize the per-sonal psychological needs of the parents andthe
child as well as the social context in whichthey are embedded.
Thus, results of thepresent analysis provide useful informationto
educators, practitioners, policy makers andprogramme planners of
the multiple influ-ences of parenting, and of the importance
offormulating parenting education programmesthat focus on the
broader aspects of the familyenvironment.
Although the present study was able todemonstrate the value of
using the ecologicalperspective in understanding parenting
beha-viour, several other variables which wouldhave been useful in
explaining variations inthe way parents behave were not included
inthe study. For example, mother's age at birthof first child may
be a better predictor. ofmaternal behaviour than her current
age.The extent to which other network members(e.g., spouse,
in-laws, domestic helpers)provided support for the mother was
alsonot included in the analysis. The child's ageand gender are
probably not good measuresof the child characteristics, and
therefore werenot significant predictors of parenting beha-viour in
this study. Despite these limitations,the present study provides
useful informationon the determinants of parenting behaviour.
More research is needed to fully under-stand how characteristics
of child, parent andcontext combine to influence the
parent-childrelationship. Additional research is alsonecessary to
establish the validity andreliability of the instruments used in
thepresent study for Malaysian samples. Futurestudies may include
other predictor variables,for example, parent's developmental
history,and parent's concerns and goals for the child.The effects
of other contextual factors, such asthe presence of other adults in
the household,the levels of tension of cohesion in the family,and
neighbourhood quality may be of interestto future researchers.
Child characteristicsthat it may be productive to examine infuture
studies are child's health or medical
history, and the child's ability to evokeresponses from the
caregiver (Scarr andMcCartney 1983). Finally, an
ethnographicresearch design which focuses on the impactof factors
discussed earlier on maternalbehaviour may also increase the
ability toexplain individual differences in parenting.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author would like to thank, ZaitonHassan and Roziah Mohd.
Rasdi, theresearch assistants for the present study.
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