Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Sep 18.
doi: 10.1007/s10578-025-01903-6. Online ahead of print.

Father's Parenting and Child Self-Control: A Comparison Between the Netherlands and South Korea

Yugyun Kim  1 , Patricia Bravo  2   3 , Jennifer S Richards  4   5 , Ji Hyun Kim  6 , Manon H J Hillegers  3 , Pauline W Jansen  3   7 , Albertine J Oldehinkel  4
Affiliations

Father's Parenting and Child Self-Control: A Comparison Between the Netherlands and South Korea

Yugyun Kim et al. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. .

Abstract

Parents from different cultures may employ different parenting behaviors to support children's development. It remains unclear whether the associations of parental warmth and control with self-control abilities vary across cultures. Moreover, little is known about how these associations may differ for father' parenting behaviors. We investigated the associations of paternal warmth and control with children's self-control problems using data from the Netherlands and South Korea. Data came from two prospective studies: the Dutch Generation R Study (n = 2,136) and the Panel Study on Korean Children (n = 1,468). Results showed paternal warmth was protective against child self-control problems in both countries. Paternal control was associated with more self-control problems in Dutch but not in Korean children, though this association in Dutch children was not significant after including all covariates. The findings emphasize the universal significance of paternal parenting in fostering children's self-control and stress to support fathers' involvement in child development.

Keywords: Cross-cultural; Father’s parenting; Parental control; Parental warmth; Self-regulation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical Approval and Informed Consent: The Generation R Study is approved by the Medical Ethical Committee of the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam (217.595/2002/202), and written informed consent was obtained from all participants. In the PSKC, written informed consent was obtained from all participants at the time of recruitment. The PSKC was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education from the eighth wave onward.

References

    1. Afrooz GA, Asgharpour H, Kashani FL (2022) The father’s role in parenting: a comparison of different cultures and psychological perspectives. Men’s Health J 6(1):e1. https://doi.org/10.22037/mhj.v6i1.36795 - DOI
    1. Bernier A, Carlson SM, Deschênes M, Matte-Gagné C (2012) Social factors in the development of early executive functioning: a closer look at the caregiving environment. Dev Sci 15(1):12–24 - PubMed - DOI
    1. Bernier A, Carlson SM, Whipple N (2010) From external regulation to self-regulation: early parenting precursors of young children’s executive functioning. Child Dev 81(1):326–339 - PubMed - DOI
    1. Block JH (1965) The child-rearing practices report (CRPR): a set of Q items for the description of parental socialization attitudes and values
    1. Botchkovar E, Marshall IH, Rocque M, Posick C (2015) The importance of parenting in the development of self-control in boys and girls: results from a multinational study of youth. J Criminal Justice 43(2):133–141 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources