Child discipline and nurturing practices among a cohort of Pacific mothers living in New Zealand.

UNLABELLED: The Pacific Islands Families (PIF) study is a longitudinal investigation of a cohort (N=1376) of Pacific infants born in New Zealand (NZ), and their mothers and fathers.

OBJECTIVES: The PIF study aimed to determine: (1) the prevalence of disciplinary and nurturing parenting practices used with children at 12 months of age, and (2) the demographic, maternal and lifestyle factors associated with parenting practices.

METHODS: At the 12-month measurement point, mothers (N=1207) were interviewed about their parenting practices using a modified version of the Parent Behaviour Checklist.

RESULTS: High nurturance was significantly associated with Samoan ethnicity and post school qualifications, and low nurturance was significantly associated with post-natal depression, alcohol consumption and gambling. At the univariate level, high discipline scores were significantly associated with gambling, postnatal depression and lack of alignment to either Pacific or to European traditions. However the strongest association with discipline was the ethnicity variable with Tongan mothers reporting significantly higher disciplinary behaviours that all other ethnicities.

CONCLUSIONS: It is clear that there are a number of common underlying lifestyle issues that need to be considered when dealing with parenting problems in families with young children. However specific to Pacific families, is Tongan ethnicity accounting for a strong cultural effect on parenting style, in particular high discipline scores relative to other Pacific groups. This important finding may be used to guide social policy and prevention programmes that are focused on the wellbeing of Pacific mothers and their children.