Examining live-in foreign domestic helpers correlates and parenting correlates in children’s externalizing behavior in Hong Kong

Abstract

BackgroundApproximately one third of Hong Kong households with children aged 12 and below employed live-in foreign domestic helpers (FDHs). However, research is scarce on examining the relationships between this FDHs-involved childcare and children’s socio-emotional outcomes. ObjectiveThis study aims to examine the non-parental (i.e., FDHs) childcare correlates and parenting correlates which are associated with children’s self-reported externalizing behavior (e.g., noncompliance, fighting). MethodThis study invited 244 Hong Kong families with Grade 4 to Grade 6 children who have live-in FDHs in their families. Child-reported attachment to FDHs was assessed. Parental warmth, control, and guan, an indigenous Chinese parenting dimension, were reported by fathers and mothers respectively. 216 children, 199 fathers, and 212 mothers returned their questionnaires. FindingsThe hierarchical regression analyses found that, among parental correlates, only maternal warmth had a significant negative correlation with children’s externalizing behavior. When including the non-parental and parental correlates, only children’s attachment toward FDHs showed a significant negative correlation with children’s externalizing behavior. ConclusionThis study pioneered in examining the relationship between children’s secondary attachment toward non-parental caregivers (i.e., FDHs) and children’s socioemotional outcome. It also extended the attachment theory to the setting of non-parental childcare in late childhood.