# Maternal parenting behavioural profiles and developmental outcomes in early years: a latent profile analysis in rural China

## TL;DR

This study identifies two distinct maternal parenting styles in rural China and links them to differences in children's early developmental outcomes.

## Contribution

The study introduces a data-driven approach to identify parenting profiles and their impact on child development in rural Chinese contexts.

## Key findings

- Two parenting profiles were identified: low human stimulation and social support versus high human stimulation and social support.
- Children in the low stimulation group showed poorer social-emotional development and higher maternal depression scores.
- The findings highlight the importance of parenting behaviors in influencing early childhood development in rural China.

## Abstract

Parenting behavioural profiles differ across cultural, economic, and ethnic contexts. China, with one of the largest child populations worldwide, faces the challenge of poor developmental outcomes during early childhood in rural areas. Using a data-driven approach, we aimed to explore distinct parenting profiles, their corresponding developmental outcomes during early childhood, and the associated family risk factors.

We enrolled children and their caregivers from a national poverty-stricken county in China. We used the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development – Third Edition to measure their developmental outcomes by cognition, motor, and language, and we assessed their social-emotional development using the Chinese version of Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional, Second Edition. We used latent profile analysis to examine the patterns of parenting behaviour and examined the difference in developmental outcomes and familial risk factors via analysis of variance.

We interviewed 260 children (mean age = 9.62, standard deviation (SD) = 3.76 months; 51.5% female) and their caregivers from a national poverty-stricken county in China. The two-profile solution best fitted the data and indicated two parenting style patterns: low human stimulation (HS) & low social support (SS) group (n = 61, 23.46%) and high HS & high SS group (n = 199, 76.54%). There was a significant difference in children’s social emotional development (P = 0.013) and mothers’ depression score (P = 0.046) between the two parenting behavioural patterns.

Our study provides evidence on maternal parenting behaviour, associated risks, and child development outcomes in rural China, with significant implications for further high-quality interventions in regions of comparable economic level, particularly in the rural areas of Western China.