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With the rising life expectancy, smaller family sizes, maternal employment and single parenthood, grandparents and domestic helpers are stepping in to share childcare responsibilities. However, there is limited research on the impact of this shift on family well-being. To address this, researchers at NTU Singapore conducted a study with hundreds of mother-child pairs and found that mothers who receive help with childcare from their own parents are more likely to show parental warmth to their children than mothers who do not receive support. According to lead researcher and associate professor at NTU’s Early Cognition Lab, Setoh Peipei, there is a growing trend of grandparents and domestic helpers becoming involved in childcare due to the prevalence of dual-income households. “While maternal grandparents, paternal grandparents, and domestic helpers all have the potential to provide instrumental assistance and emotional encouragement when it comes to childcare duties, our study found that childcare support from maternal grandparents was the most beneficial. This finding supports the idea introduced in earlier research that maternal grandparents are uniquely positioned to provide support in a manner most aligned with the needs of mothers, possibly due to shared values and ease of communication,” said Peipei, who is also associated with the Psychology division at NTU’s School of Social Sciences.

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