Singaporean adults’ resilience and perceived parenting styles

Abstract

The study examined the relationships between the resilience of Singaporean adults and their perceptions of their fathers’ and mothers’ parenting styles. It also examined the differences in resilience between the male and female adults. A total of 172 Singaporean adults, aged between 23 and 76, participated and completed a questionnaire comprising the Parental Authority Questionnaire, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and demographic information questions in the study. Findings showed that both fathers’ and mothers’ authoritative parenting styles were positively correlated to resilience, while no relationships were found between both authoritarian and permissive parenting styles and resilience. No difference was found between Singaporean male adults and Singaporean female adults in resilience. The results suggested that the positive relationships between both parental authoritative parenting styles and Singaporean adults’ resilience could be made aware to parents, and that they could benefit from additional education with the knowledge of parenting styles, through counselling, intervention, programmes and policies. This in turn, could lead towards exercising an authoritative parenting style, and contributing to their children’s resilience. Authoritative parenting style could also be identified as a strength and protective factor of an individual whilst being challenged by stressors and adversities. Both genders were equally resilient and this might imply that both genders had comparable dispositional attributes as well as supporting systems and resources to adapt and bounce back from adversities.