Background

The trend for dual-income households is becoming increasingly apparent with rising costs of living. The challenge of work-family balance is one of the key factors contributing to poor mental health and wellbeing within the population.

To explore solutions for coping with the stressors parents face, Assoc Prof Atiqah Azhari is leading a research team, co-led by Satvinder Singh Dhaliwal from SUSS Office of Provost and Beron Tan from Private Space Medical, to conduct a study determining brain mechanisms that reinforce coping strategies.

Objective

In their study, the team emphasizes the importance of the impact that autonomy and satisfaction level in a career has on parenting practices and parent-child relationships at home.

A poor balance between work and family can lead to parenting stress and spousal conflict. Ultimately, an increase in parenting stress can stem from parents’ perceived lack of cognitive reserve, physical energy, and time to meet demands.

The team acknowledges that positive and strong parent-child relationships are essential for emotional socialization. This supports emotional regulation within children. Hence, the study aims to use a psychometric, behavioural, and neuroscience approach to design a technological coping intervention for parents.

The team aims to be the first to work on developing an app that employs a dual-prong approach of coping mechanisms for work and home environments by examining how resilience and well-being can be promoted through various strategies that buffer the effects of work-related stressor.

Building on that, the effects these strategies have on parent-child dyadic brain activity will also be analyzed.

More information and findings to be published here at a later date.