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. 2024 Apr 24;12(9):881.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare12090881.

Typology of Parent-to-Child Emotions: A Study of Japanese Parents of a Foetus up to a 12-Year-Old Child

Ayako Hada  1   2   3   4 , Yukiko Ohashi  1   5 , Yuriko Usui  1   2   6 , Toshinori Kitamura  1   2   7
Affiliations

Typology of Parent-to-Child Emotions: A Study of Japanese Parents of a Foetus up to a 12-Year-Old Child

Ayako Hada et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Emotions are the fundamental origin of parent-child bonding, which is measurable by the Scale for Parent-to-Child Emotions (SPCE) based on the theories of basic and self-conscious emotions. Methods: This study is based on the data from a cross-sectional study that we previously reported. The data consist of fathers and mothers who had a child/children, whose eldest child's age was at the foetal stage up to 12 years old, and were recruited via the Internet (N = 4600). A series of cluster analyses using factor scores (theta[Ө]s) of all domains of the SPCE were conducted. After the clusters emerged, the fathers and mothers allocated to each cluster were compared by the child's age stage. The validation of the classifications was also conducted using ANOVAs and chi-squared tests. A discriminant function analysis was conducted. Results: The participant mothers and fathers were classified into Cluster 1 (Lack of Bonding Emotions, n = 509), Cluster 2 (Bonding Disorder, n = 1471), Cluster 3 (Ambivalent Bonding Emotions, n = 1211), and Cluster 4 (Positive Bonding, n = 1409). Across the four clusters, there were no differences in the age of the parents or the gender of the child. During the second trimester, mothers made up the majority of Cluster 4 (Positive Bonding), totalling 81 cases (37.5%), whereas fathers made up the majority of Cluster 2 (Bonding Disorder), totalling 126 cases (60.0%). The three linear discriminants (LDs) well predicted the four clusters, and their functions showed cross validation. Conclusions: The typology of the SPCE is helpful to understand individual differences in terms of parental emotional bonding.

Keywords: basic emotions; child age; child gender; cluster analysis; parent-to-child emotions; parental gender; self-conscious emotions.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Graph of mean Ө s for each SPCE domain by cluster. A solid line coloured pink is Cluster 1 (reduced bonding emotion), a solid line coloured green is Cluster 2 (negative bonding emotion), a solid line coloured blue is Cluster 3 (neutral bonding emotion), and a solid line coloured purple is Cluster 4 (positive bonding emotion).
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