THE DIFFERENCES IN PARENTING STYLE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN UNDER FIVE IN TULUNGAGUNG AND BANGKALAN DISTRICT, EAST JAVA, INDONESIA

Abstract

Background: Children's health is strongly influenced by the parenting style. Good parenting will affect children's optimal growth and development such as having better nutritional status and less morbidity. Balanced nutrition is needed to achieve the optimal growth and development of children starting from newborns. East Java is one of Indonesia’s provinces with the highest stunting prevalence in children under five. However, few studies focused on the parenting style differences in areas with the highest and lowest prevalence of stunting.Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe and compare the characteristics of parenting styles of children under five in Tulungagung and Bangkalan districts.Methods: This is a descriptive-analytic study with a cross-sectional design conducted among 404 mothers in Tulungagung and Bangkalan districts which were selected by purposive sampling. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire, including family characteristics, children feeding practices, environmental sanitation, history of infection, and utilization of health services. The differences in the parenting style characteristics of children under five in two districts were analyzed using Chi-square.Result: There was a significant difference in the characteristics of mothers in Tulungagung and Bangkalan districts, including age, education level, and birth attendant. Socio-cultural, nutrition, and health-related parenting was also significantly differ in terms of parenting duration, training for caregivers, dietary taboo, parenting advice provider, early breastfeeding, other food before 6 months old, vegetable and protein food frequency, Posyandu visit frequency, vitamin A supplementation, iodized salt usage for cooking, child immunization status, child’s age of first immunizations, health facilities visit, initial action before bringing children to health facilities when sick. Significant different was also found in environment sanitation including the condition of house ceiling, walls, floor, living room windows, ventilation, kitchen vent, indoor lighting, clean water facility, ownership of latrines, children feces disposal frequency, and littering location and frequency.Conclusion: In summary, there is a parenting style discrepancy between districts with the highest and lowest prevalence of stunting in children under five.