Maternal Sensitivity and Warmth in Singapore: Cultural Insights from Comparing the Ainsworth and Emotional Availability Scales

The convergence among measures of maternal sensitivity and warmth, and their associations with children’s language ability and likeability by peers were examined. Participants were 167 mothers and their child aged 4 to 6 (55.7% girls) from the four major ethnic groups in Singapore (Chinese, Malay, Indian and Other). Latent Profile Analysis showed that 14.5% of the mothers were classified as sensitive and high in warmth, 53.9% as inconsistently sensitive and displaying some warmth, and 31.5% as insensitive and low on warmth towards their child. Sensitivity and warmth were not strongly and consistently linked to children’s language ability and peer likeability (-.35< r <.16), suggesting that they may not be key factors that contribute towards children’s development in the Singaporean context.