**3. Results**

Of the 56 selected studies, most (n = 10, 17.86%) were published in 2020 and in social sciences journals (n = 13, 24.53%) (see Appendix, last page). The rate of

publication was extremely low in the first decade, with only two studies between 2002 and 2008. However, there was an increasing trend of publications on parenting in Malaysia in the recent decade. While the majority of the studies employed quantitative research (n = 51, 91.07%), there were only four (7.14%) qualitative and one (1.79%) mixed-method research. In the subsequent sections, the following themes on the parenting elements of Malaysian parents were considered: (a) parenting styles; (b) parenting practices (skills, monitoring, control); and (c) parent-child interaction. Based on these themes, reviewed studies that have examined parenting in any ethnic groups in Malaysia were critically analysed. Each theme is given a brief introduction before the summarised review of the local literature.

#### **3.1 Parenting styles**

Parenting styles are usually described according to Ainsworth's classification of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive types [23], as well as neglectful parenting styles [24, 25]. Studies have consistently indicated the optimal child outcomes of authoritative parenting. Authoritative parenting has been associated with greater life satisfaction in youth [26], positive child behaviour [27], higher academic achievement [27, 28], and a lower level of adolescent depression [29, 30]. However, Keshavarz & Baharudin have suggested that Malaysian collectivistic nature is mostly associated with authoritarian parenting [31]. Since the values of familism and filial piety are still highly regarded in many Malaysian families, authoritarian parenting has been argued to suit them better. Furthermore, both values are clustered under collectivism [32] and have historically been strengthened by Confucianism [33]. As a fundamental family element [34], filial piety contributes towards greater life satisfaction among adolescents [35] and is associated with significantly lower levels of emotional and behavioural problems in children [34]. In contrast with Keshavarz and Baharudin's conclusion [31], Kay et al. have suggested the co-existence of both collectivist and individualistic values within Malaysian society [36]. Despite the country's modernisation and the likely shift from collectivism to individualism [37], an earlier study by Tien et al. showed that the local youth still feel responsible for their elderly parents [38].

For the past two decades, the parenting research field in Malaysia has largely focused on the types and roles of parenting styles in shaping their children. An early study by Hanafi that explored Malay adolescents' perceptions of parenting styles indicated that they perceive their parents as having low demandingness and high responsiveness [39]. Salehuddin & Winskel compared developmental age expectations, parenting style, and self-construal in Malaysian caregivers from Malay, Chinese and Indian backgrounds [40]. They found that Malaysian parents tend to display an authoritative than authoritarian parenting style, contrasting with the assertion that collectivist cultures tend to be predominantly authoritarian. According to Yunos and Talib, while the family socioeconomic background is significantly positively related to authoritative parenting, it is significantly negatively related to authoritarian parenting [41]. Additionally, it was found that the paternal working status has modest effects on parenting styles, children's behaviour, and school achievement [42]. On another note, Hong et al. who also studied fathers noted that their psychological distress and the number of children are significantly and positively related to authoritarian parenting style, whereas fathers' education and marital quality are significantly and positively related to authoritative parenting style [43].

Parenting styles are shown to moderate the effect of academic self-concept on academic achievement, with the impact of academic self-concept on academic achievement greater for authoritative than authoritarian parenting style [44]. Hassan & Sen showed that authoritarian parenting style is negatively correlated

with academic performance among undergraduate university students [45]. Within a similar population, Sulaiman and Hassan found that parenting style does not influence academic procrastination [46]. However, parenting styles influence special education students' academic achievement [47] and the demand for tuition [48].

Concerning emotion, Yahya et al. found a significant correlation between attachment anxiety and authoritarian parenting style [49]. Furthermore, Yu et al. observed that authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were positively related to promoting emotional abuse, whereas authoritative parenting styles prevented emotional abuse among adolescents in Kuala Lumpur [50]. Having authoritative parents are also linked with higher children's self-esteem and positive youth development [51–53]. This finding was supported by Hong et al., who showed the negative link between authoritarian parenting and university students' self-esteem [52]. Also, Basirion et al. who examined highly intelligent students found that positive perfectionism was significantly predicted by parents' authoritative parenting, but negative perfectionism was significantly predicted by parents' authoritarian parenting [54].

Mofrad et al. found no significant relationship between parenting style and learned helplessness behaviour [55]. In a similar study, Keshavarz and Baharudin investigated the moderating role of father's education on the associations between perceived paternal parenting styles and locus of control among Malaysian adolescents and found significant negative relationships between fathers' authoritative and authoritarian parenting style with adolescents' internal locus of control [56]. While examining the relationship between parenting style and attitude of Muslim teenagers, Ghani et al. found a significant relationship between authoritative parenting with the adolescent's attitude towards God and oneself, as compared to the significant relationship between authoritarian parenting and the adolescent's attitude only towards oneself [57].

Recently, Cong et al. demonstrated the lack of predictive ability of parenting styles on child mental health problems [58]. In addition, parenting style has been studied in other areas. For instance, Mohamad Nor and Sutan noted that laxnessparenting style is significantly associated with home injury occurrence in preschool children [59]. In the crime-related field, parenting styles have been discussed with pedophilia and delinquency issues. According to Abd Hamid et al., the parenting practices of 1) involvement, 2) monitoring, and 3) goals, values, and aspirations, are essential to address the issue of paedophilia [60]. There is also a significant relationship between authoritarian parenting style and juvenile delinquent behaviour but none was found with authoritative and permissive parenting [61]. Similarly, Nubailah et al. found a significant correlation between permissive parenting style and drug abuse risks, a weak and positive relationship between authoritarian parenting with drug abuse risks, and a weak and negative relationship between authoritative parenting style and drug abuse risks [62].

#### **3.2 Parenting practices (skills, monitoring, control)**

Parenting practices consist of quantitative and qualitative measurements of parental behaviors in raising a child. These practices may be categorised into parental involvement, control, and parenting styles [63]. From another perspective, parents' self-efficacy and belief have also been linked strongly to their parenting practices [64, 65]. Parenting practices play a major role in a child's socio-emotional development [66], but poor parenting practices have been implicated with children's bullying behaviors and impaired physical health [67, 68]. In addition, the level of parental control and monitoring over their children has also been evaluated as a measure of parental discipline. The lack of parental monitoring is associated with more high-risk behaviours such as sexual behaviours and drug abuse [69, 70] and

violence [71] among adolescents. Parental control, on the other hand, could come in the form of behavioural or psychological control [72]. Parents exert behavioural control by monitoring the behaviour of their children or through child-appropriate parental supervision such as asking for the children's whereabouts and activities, setting rules, and limiting children's freedom [73]. On the other hand, parental psychological control may consist of manipulative strategies such as emotional blackmail or withdrawal of affection [74], while parental behavioural control is associated with child self-control [75]. The perception of parental control is associated with mental health problems in one-fifth of Malaysian adolescents [76].

Based on the local literature, a child's perception of their parents' parenting is undeniably important. A study by Hanafi showed that children who perceive their mothers as high achievers and as someone who consistently monitors their children, are more academically aware [77], while Cheah et al. found that perceived parental investments, filial emotions, warmth, and support are positively associated with adolescents' filial behaviours [78]. In addition, the filial obligation in preadolescents and adolescents has different moral reasoning [79]. Parental supervision is an equally important practice, the lack of which is a significant risk factor for Malaysian adolescent depression [80]. A positive parental attitude can promote discipline and control in children [81].

Although Mat Hussin et al. found that parental supervision showed no significant association with physical interpersonal violence [82], Low et al. in their study among Malaysian juvenile offenders indicate that parental monitoring is the strongest predictor of adolescents' antisocial behaviour [83]. Furthermore, adolescents who use illicit drugs lack parental monitoring [84]. Nonetheless, Shin and Ismail demonstrated that children whose parents are controlling may be more inclined to take risks [85]. Regarding youth sexual behaviours, high maternal control increases the likelihood of boys having sexual intention, but for girls, having a high level of family connectedness is a protective factor against sexual intention [86]. Parental autonomy protects children from emotional, behavioural, and peer relationship problems [87]. While the parent-child relationship is important in suicide prevention among adolescents [88], there is a relationship between negative parenting behaviours and adolescent anxiety [89].

#### **3.3 Parent-child interaction**

Parent-child interaction is constantly evolving and becomes the foundation for children to socialise and gain social support [90], attain emotional regulation [91], and learn [92]. There is also a suggestion that parent-child interaction produces infant brain changes [93]. Through parenting intervention, improved and positive parent-child interaction during childhood yields an encouraging outcome in terms of externalizing behaviour during adolescence [94]. In research, the parent-child interrelationship is measured through self-reports and observational methods. Tryphonopoulos et al. who compared several parent-child interaction scales concluded the lack of a single best tool to measure the parent-child interaction [95]. It has therefore been recommended that an assessment strategy should be directed by its purpose.

In the local literature, the family process variables have been frequently studied. In terms of family functioning in Malaysian collectivist society, six themes were found: (i) family role, (ii) parenting styles, (iii) family rule, (iv) communication, (v) value orientation, and (vi) cohesiveness [96]. Baharudin et al. found that parenting behaviour and family competency could predict adolescent antisocial behaviour, unlike demographic factors such as family income [97]. Moreover, based on Krauss et al. who studied Muslim adolescents, positive parenting is the greatest protective factor against risk behaviour, whereas religiosity promotes prosocial

behaviours [98]. In a similar vein, Krauss et al. indicated that parental religious socialisation, parental monitoring, mosque involvement, school engagement, and youth organisation involvement accounted for a significant amount of the variance in religious personality among Malaysian youth [99]. Additionally, Le et al. found that parental emotion socialisation is an important mediator among culture, gender, and alexithymia [100].

Parent-child communications play a big role in the parent-child relationship. It was found that parenting and giving advice ('sharenting') are both important to prevent delinquency among Malaysian adolescents [101]. Good parent-adolescent communication also prevents sexual health risk behaviour among adolescents [102]. Using the data from the World Health Organization Global School-based Student Health Survey 2012, Ahmad et al. found that parental bonding and parental connectedness also protect against sexual encounters among school children [103]. According to Wu and Yaacob, mother–child intimacy, rather than father-child intimacy, is strongly correlated with adolescents' suicidal ideation [104]. The level of parental involvement may enhance children's academic and social development, leading towards positive emotions in children [105]. Apart from that, parental care and family environment partially mediate the relationship between parental readiness and adolescent academic performance [106].

Parenting is greatly influenced by the socioeconomic status [107] and the structure of the family [108]. In their phenomenological study, Sumari, Sarada, et al. found that appreciating the parent-child relationship is one of the ways adolescents copes with parental divorce [108]. Direct parental socialisation predicts children's religiosity more strongly for two-parent families than single or non-parent families [109]. Jo-Pei who evaluated whether ethnically-mixed children are less well psychologically adjusted when compared to children from mono-ethnic families demonstrated that children from mixed parentage reported fewer emotional and behavioural problems than those from mono-ethnic minority families [110]. Chiah & Baharudin evaluated the relationship between parenting behaviour of mothers and socio-emotional adjustments of adolescents in intact and non-intact Malay families and found that family functioning rather than parenting behaviour is a better predictor of adolescents' social and emotional adjustment [111]. A few studies have compared Malaysian parenting with other societies. In an instance, Hassan et al. found that Malaysians score significantly higher on family interference with work than all Western samples [112]. According to Winskel et al., while Anglo-Australians appreciate child compliance, early verbal development, social skills with peers, and emotional control, Malaysians value educational attainment, interdependence, politeness, and respect for adults [113]. Manap and Hamzah focus on Muslim families in Malaysia and indicated some fundamental parenting principles that included having positive role models, knowledge culture, strong religiosity, high responsibility, and the belief that parenting is a collective effort and the pre-determined life's destiny [114].

### **4. Discussion**

#### **4.1 Parenting in Malaysia: putting it all together**

Living in a plural society means that different cultural backgrounds would influence how parents in the society raise their children. The literature shows that culture influences parenting outcomes. Therefore, the typical categories of parenting styles in terms of warmth and independence which is promoted in a culture may not be compatible with another culture. While there is a voluminous literature on

cross-cultural parenting, this issue has received much less attention and coverage in the local Southeast Asian region, including in Malaysia. We conducted a literature review of research on parenting behaviours in Malaysia to develop an understanding of parenting as practiced by parents of various ethnic groups in Malaysia by synthesising the available research evidence. While it was not feasible to review and discuss all of the available studies, this review revealed a coherent pattern of findings with clear research and practice implications. Foremost, it is shown that parenting styles are most commonly researched in the country. Some evidence pointed towards parenting style outcomes which are inconsistent with the Western customs. This review also shows that parenting styles and practices that are widely considered to be sub-optimal in many cultures may not invariably translate into undesirable outcomes for children in Malaysia.

Common with parents from other Asian countries [115], family values are central to Malaysian but its rich ethnocultural elements also lend an influence on childrearing. As a multiracial country, some studies supported its collectivistic nature, although Malaysia seems to be showing a shift from collectivism to individualism due to the urbanisation process [37]. The society's collectivistic culture appreciates the extended family as a basic unit in the society in which harmonious interpersonal relationships are encouraged through rituals such as greeting the elders or addressing older members with specific titles. Among Malaysians, collectivistic values are often associated with patriarchy [31]. Nevertheless, Malaysian families may have changed from being patriarchal [116] to equalitarian [96]. Further, comparing Malaysia with its neighbor Singapore, their different social policies may translate into different childrearing and social values [117].

The authoritarian parenting style is renowned for undesirable outcomes related to children's behaviour, academic achievement, self-esteem, and psychosocial adjustments [118–125]. However, Asian authoritarian parenting should not be universally associated with a negative outcome. Ang and Goh argued that it is the levels of child adjustment in response to authoritarian parenting that determines its consequence [10]. A prominent parenting difference between Asian and Western parenting lies within the level of parental involvement [14], and psychological control [124]. The more parental involvement and control, the higher the children's demand for autonomy and hence the higher the parent-child conflict [125]. A high level of involvement and control are characters of authoritarian parenting [126]. While making choices for children is common and acceptable among Asian parents [127], this parental responsibility might seem to be overbearing for Western families. Authoritarian parenting also consists of high discipline and physical coercion, and lower warmth or acceptance [128].

The prominent work on parenting style classification has described authoritarian parents as strict and focusing too much on a child's compliance rather than providing warmth and being responsive [126]. On the contrary, Chao argued that the simple concept of authoritarian parental control within Baumrind's parenting styles may not fit the Asian parents, who endorse parental control as a form of training with discipline rather than the lack of warmth [129]. Moreover, although Pinquart and Kauser through their meta-analysis on parenting styles across cultures advocate the adoption of authoritative parenting to promote good behavioural and academic outcomes in children, they acknowledge that authoritarian parenting may not be negative in some cultures [130]. Additionally, authoritarian parenting has a different cultural meaning in different cultures [3], and hence its impact may be different between collectivistic and individualistic societies [130]. While collectivism is concerned with group membership and maintaining harmony with others, individualism emphasizes individual uniqueness, personal goals, and independence [131, 132]. Children from collectivistic societies are encouraged to follow rules and conform to norms while those from individualistic societies are given autonomy and even encouraged to engage in the independent exploration of their environment. According to He et al., the Asian culture has stronger collectivism than individualism values [133]. Nevertheless, more recent studies argued that the dichotomy of these social dimensions may overlap [36, 133], the shift from one to another [37], or even wane over generations [134]. Hence, a particular society may eventually have both collectivistic and individualistic elements. The importance of these social elements lies in their influences on parenting styles. Parents from collectivistic societies favour authoritarian parenting more than those from individualistic societies [135]. However, they may have difficulty in raising their children using authoritarian values in an individualistic society [136]. Consequently, parenting behaviours that are congruent with the cultural norms and social dimension of society are likely to be more effective; culturally-conformed parenting provides more positive, consistent, and predictable parent-child exchanges, through which children experience an optimum family environment to thrive.

#### **4.2 Limitations of the study**

There are some limitations to this review. Firstly, it is only limited to the selected papers, which had been restrained by the selected studies and hence the risk of selection bias. As a result, there is a possibility of making a misleading conclusion. Despite the effort to delineate the selection criteria and review process, the method employed in this review might still be subjective and hence lacks its rigour. Finally, the final selected articles were not able to provide a well-researched comparison of different ethnic groups in Malaysia with regards to their parenting behaviours. Most of the studies did not include samples representative of, at least, the major ethnic groups in Malaysia. Therefore, this review is unable to present any sufficient evidence to support the Ecological Systems Theory.

#### **4.3 Recommendations for future research**

While the studies were heavily focused on parenting styles, parenting elements that include parental warmth and support, parent-child communication, parental monitoring, and parental behavioural control are perhaps more relevant in the context of a largely collectivistic country. Therefore, future research should examine these elements, among different races in Malaysia. Based on the role of social dimensions in parenting behaviours, more studies are needed to evaluate the relationship between collectivistic and individualistic values on the elements of parenting behaviours among Malaysian parents. Future research must also move forward and put an effort to compare parenting styles, parenting practices (e.g., positive parenting, disciplinary measures, nurturance) among different ethnic groups. Correspondingly, there is a need to attend to the ethnocultural norms of parenting and examine how culture moderates the relationship between parenting styles and child outcomes.

### **5. Conclusions**

The diversity in the parenting behaviours among Malaysian parents gives rise to different outcomes in their children. The dynamics of the country's social structure indicate that neither authoritative nor authoritarian parenting produces the best outcomes for the future generation. Essentially, culturally-conformed parenting which is responsive to the diverse cultural backgrounds and the collectivistic/individualistic values of parents might be more effective.


**Appendix**














