Support seeking in children from low- and middle-income countries: A multicultural investigation in South Africa, Iran and China

Abstract

Parental support helps children manage stress and regulate emotions. As children mature, their need for parental support evolves to align with age-specific developmental challenges. In non-Western societies, little is known about how children’s experiences of situations as stressful influence their decision to seek parental support. In order to investigate this, we conducted a cross-sectional, qualitative study utilising an autobiographical memory method with children between the ages of 9–12 years from South Africa (n = 73, Mage = 10.75, SD = 0.99), China (n = 115, Mage = 10.48, SD = 0.71) and Iran (n = 66, Mage = 10.28, SD = 0.88) to recall support-related memories from both parents using a questionnaire devised for the study. Our findings indicate that children require parental support most frequently when faced with academic difficulties and competencies, social conflict and struggles with autonomy. The results support that similar age-appropriate situations perceived as stressful activate the attachment system across diverse cultures, with some content-specific variation. Iranian mothers tend to provide comfort as a means of support. Parents in China and South Africa offered support in the form of problem solving. These findings contribute to the literature on children’s support-seeking behaviours within the context of attachment theory.