Do Parenting Styles Affect Children's Oral Health in Saudi Arabia?

An investigation of the association between parenting style and child's dental caries: a cross-sectional study

To investigate the association between parenting style and child's dental caries. Parents presenting with their children to the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine for an initial exam or re-care appointment completed a demographic survey and the parenting styles and dimensions questionnaire. Recruitment of subjects started in May 2019 and ended in February of 2020. Child's decayed, missing, and filled teeth (dmft) index, diet score, sex, and age were recorded, as were parent's race, education level, and form of payment. Adjustment for confounders was done using multivariable negative binomial regression. The sample size was 210 parent/child dyads. In the multivariable analysis, parenting style and child's dmft were not significantly associated (p > 0.05). Parents with an education level less than high school (p = 0.02) and at the high school graduate level (p = 0.008) were significantly associated with children who had higher dmft, compared to parents with a college degree or higher. Children with excellent diet scores had significantly lower dmft than children with a diet score in the "needs improvement" category (p = 0.003). There was no significant evidence that parenting style is associated with child's dental caries. Parent's education level and child's diet score were significantly associated with child's dmft, less than high school (p = 0.02) and at the level of high school graduate (p = 0.008). Pediatric dental professionals should be aware of these risk indicators.

Parenting styles and dental caries in Brazilian children and adolescents in foster care

PURPOSE

This study aimed to analyse parenting styles as a possible factor associated with caries in foster children and adolescents who had been victims of domestic violence.

METHODS

The study was carried out in nine foster shelters in Recife, Northeast Brazil, with a sample of 88 participants aged 8 to 17 years old. Data were collected through intraoral examinations to verify deft/DMFT indices, applying the Demandingness and Responsiveness Scales to determine parenting styles. In turn, sociodemographic data were retrieved from records filed at the institutions. Descriptive analysis was performed, with the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests being used to compare the categories of numerical variables.

RESULTS

The mean deft/DMFT was of 3.78 in children (8 and 9 years old) and 1.93 in adolescents (10 years old and older). Overall, the index was of 2.31. Neglect was the main reason for the children's admission to foster care, while neglectful was the most prevalent parenting style.

CONCLUSION

Children of indulgent parents had higher caries indices in both deciduous and permanent teeth, while children of authoritative (permanent teeth) and authoritarian parents (deciduous teeth) had the lowest caries indices. However, no significant associations were found between caries and parenting styles.

Parenting Style Frequency and Their Sociodemographic Determinants in Buraidah City, Qassim, Saudi Arabia

Background Three parenting styles still form the foundation for today's research into childhood development. The natural mode of parenting falls somewhere among Baumrind's parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive). Due to the lack of research that integrates the relationship between parenting styles and socioeconomic status in Saudi Arabia, we decided to study different types of parenting styles and their relationship with sociodemographic status. Objective This study aimed to estimate the frequency of parenting styles among adolescent children's parents in Buraidah City, Qassim, during the year 2021. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional community-based study was conducted among 496 parents. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The Parenting Style Dimension Questionnaire (PSDQ) was used to identify the parenting style of each participant. Data were analyzed using the Epi Info software version 7.2.5 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA). Results Among the surveyed parents, there were 250 (50.4%) males, and the mean age was 36.7 (±10.6) years. The majority (390, 78.6%) live in a nuclear family with a family size ranging from four to six members (285, 57.5%). A total of 451 (90.9%) parents were educated in secondary school and above. In this study, the common parenting style was the authoritative style (380, 76.6%). The two sociodemographic factors found to be statistically correlated with authoritative style were big family size (P=0.014) and the husband's income (P=0.012). Conclusion The study revealed that the authoritative parenting style was the dominant type among younger parents. However, no factors affect the parents' style except family size and the husband's income. It is important to develop parenting education programs to provide parents with the necessary skills and abilities to deal with their children.

Parenting practices and oral health behaviors of children in rural Egypt: gender differences in a household survey

Background

Parenting practices influence children’s health and development. The current study aimed at assessing gender differences in children’s perception of the parenting practices of both parents, and in the association between children’s oral health behaviors and parenting practices.

Methods

A cross-sectional household survey of 6–12 year old children was conducted in a rural area in Northwestern Egypt in 2019. Clinical examination assessed caries and gingivitis. The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire assessed parenting practices in five domains (positive parenting, involvement, inconsistent disciplining, poor monitoring and corporal punishment) and the World Health Organization questionnaire assessed oral health behaviors including sugar consumption and daily toothbrushing. Sugar consumption was the dependent variable in linear regression and daily toothbrushing was the dependent variable in logistic regression. Parenting practices were the explanatory variables adjusting for confounders. Effect modification by child gender was assessed.

Results

The response rate was 94.1% (n = 433), mean age = 9.9 years, 44.1% boys, 17.8% with daily toothbrushing and mean sugar consumption score = 3.4/8. Girls perceived more mothers’ positive parenting than boys (mean = 14.15 and 13.46) and boys perceived more poor monitoring and corporal punishment. Boys and girls differed in the association between sugar consumption and fathers’ inconsistent disciplining, poor monitoring (P = 0.004 and 0.02) and mothers’ corporal punishment (P = 0.02), and also daily toothbrushing and mothers’ involvement, positive parenting (P = 0.05 and 0.02), fathers’ positive parenting (P = 0.02), mothers’ inconsistent discipling and poor monitoring (P = 0.01 and 0.04).

Conclusions

There were differences between boys and girls in perceiving mothers’ and fathers’ parenting practices and in the association between these parenting practices and toothbrushing and sugar consumption.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12903-022-02054-z.

Factors Affecting Future Caries Occurrence Among Preschoolers in Northern Guangdong: A Longitudinal Study

Purpose

This study aimed to investigate the new development of caries among preschoolers in northern Guangdong and to assess caries-related factors to distinguish groups with different caries risk levels.

Methods

Baseline data were recorded for participants from September to November 2019, and participants were reexamined from September to November 2020. A longitudinal observation of 11,973 preschoolers was conducted. The simplified debris index (DI-S) and decayed-missing-filled tooth (dmft) index values were obtained for each participant.

Results

Factors associated with whether caries would occur in the future and one-year increase in dmft (Δdmft) included baseline dmft, baseline DI-S, and baseline age. The risk ratio (RR) of caries occurrence and the number of teeth with new-onset caries were 4.482 (95% confidence interval, 4.056-4.957) and 2.945 (2.742-3.165) in the participants with baseline dmft ≥3, which were higher than those with baseline dmft =1 or 2. In the baseline caries-free group, whether caries would occur in the future was related to the baseline DI-S (95% confidence interval, 0.022-0.062). The caries incidence of maxillary central incisors (27.9%) was the highest among teeth of preschoolers without caries at baseline, whereas the caries incidence of mandibular first deciduous molars (42.7%) was the highest among teeth of preschoolers with caries at baseline.

Conclusion

Baseline dmft is a good predictor of future caries. Children with baseline caries-free status, baseline dmft >0, and baseline dmft ≥3 should be treated with preventive interventions of different intensities and frequencies. The occurrence of future caries in baseline caries-free participants is related to oral hygiene status. Measures to prevent caries on smooth surfaces, such as topical fluoridation, should be applied to all preschoolers. Preschoolers with caries at baseline may be given priority for pit and fissure sealing.

Parenting practices and oral health status in rural areas in Egypt: a household survey

Background

Parenting practices influence children’s health and development. The present study assessed the association between parenting practices and oral health status of children living in rural areas in Egypt.

Methods

A cross-sectional household survey including 190 households and 392 children was conducted from May 2019 to January 2020 in four villages in Egypt. Data were collected through clinical examination and interview-based questionnaires of children. Clinical examination assessed caries (DMFT and dft), oral hygiene and gingival condition. Parenting practices were assessed using the short version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) and oral health practices were assessed using the WHO questionnaire-child form. Four linear regression models were used to assess the relationship between four outcome variables (oral health indicators: (DMF, df, plaque and gingival indices) and parenting practices and oral health behaviors (exposure) after adjusting for potential confounders. Regression coefficients (B), 95% confidence intervals (CI) and model adjusted R² were calculated.

Results

Complete questionnaires and clinical data were available for 392 children (response rate = 86.34%). The mean (SD) age = 9.93 (3.05) with 54.60% females. Most children (67.60%) had caries in their primary teeth, mean ± SD of df = 2.94 ± 3.10, while only 27.30% had caries in their permanent teeth, mean DMF ± SD = 0.57 ± 1.13. There was a statistically significant difference between parenting practices of both fathers and mothers (p < 0.001, < 0.001, < 0.001, 0.008 and < 0.001 for the five parenting constructs). The adjusted R² of the models that included parenting practices (for DMF = 0.168, for df = 0.400, for plaque index = 0.061 and for gingival index = 0.090) were similar to the models that included oral health behaviors (for DMF = 0.197, for df = 0.421, for plaque index = 0.059 and for gingival index = 0.084).

Conclusion

The association between oral health status and parenting practices which- although not statistically significant- was similar in impact to that between oral health behaviors and oral health status, highlighting the importance of parenting practices to oral health.