Quality of Parent-Child Interactions in Migrant Community

Purpose: Parents are an essential scaffolding system for their children’s development and education in early childhood. The rapid political transition and associated economic collapse in transitional countries led children and their families to be suffered from family structure changes due to increased immigration, and altered parenting practices caused by decreased childcare facilities and social support. However, limited knowledge exists about how parents interact with their children, especially in Kyrgyzstan. The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of parent-child interactions in Kyrgyzstan by analyzing the interaction patterns and playfulness of children during free play at home. Frequency, types, and contents of interaction behaviors between parents and children were analyzed.

Methods: This was a descriptive study using video-recorded observations to explore parent-child interactions.The Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System and a playfulness instrument were used to assess the patterns and quality of the interaction. Data were collected during July 2017. Participants were 21 dyads of parents and their children living in migrant communities around Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, where a child health promotion international development project supported by Korea International Cooperation Agency was implemented. There were 20 mothers and 1 father, with an average age of 31.57 (±7.02) years and a range from 19 to 41. Half of those parents (52.3%) were in their thirties; 66.7% had secondary education and the remaining parents graduated from primary schools. Most families had their incomes from business, unskilled labor, professional work, weaving, and others. Of the 21 children, 12 were male (57.1%) and 9 (42.8 %) female. The ages of child participants ranged from 13 to 39 months and the averaged was 22.4 (±8.68) months. On average, families in the study had four children.

Results: Major parent-child interaction patterns included 461 turns of parent-child dyads during 805 episodes. In those episodes, the number of parent behaviors was 751 and the number of child behaviors was 494. Verbal as well as nonverbal behaviors of parents were observed while interacting with their children. Direct command (24.6%) was the most frequently used parent behavior in this study, followed by indirect command (24.2%). Labeled praise (0.61%) was the least used behavior in the interaction. Children frequently used compliance as well as noncompliance when they interacted with their parents. Children had low playfulness scores while interacting with their parents. Cognitive spontaneity was the component with the lowest score among all subdomains of playfulness.

Conclusion: Deficiencies and limitations in parenting practices resulted in poor parent-child interaction mostly in underserved areas such as migrant villages in the present study. Given that nurturing environment and stimulation are critical for improved child developmental outcomes, and that parents are a critical scaffolding system for child development, more strategies are needed to facilitate parents’ active interaction and play with their children. Future studies are recommended to develop strategies to facilitate parents’ active interaction with their children, promote children’s playfulness, and improve the quality of their mutual interaction.