MSF 9THSOCIAL AND FAMILY RESEARCH FUND
MSF SOCIAL AND fAMILY Research FundSUGGESTED Research Topics
S/N / Research Topics / Short Description/Details
Family - Family Development and Function
1 / Shifts in family forms over time / How do people define the ‘family’? What are the drivers of emerging family forms(e.g., one-child families, reconstituted families, childless families)?For the emerging family forms and other shifts in the family structure, what can be done to further strengthen the family’s role in supporting its members physically, emotionally and financially?
2 / Needs and aspirations of Singaporean families today across different life stages / To investigate the needs and aspirations of Singaporean families at different life stages. What are the significant ‘life events/stages’ for Singaporean families (i.e. upon marriage, birth of first child, birth of subsequent child(s), when children grow up and leave the household, upon retirement, etc? What is the impact of these ‘life events/stages’ on the family in terms of family relationships and ties, and on individual members’ functioning and outcomes? How can families be supported to manage the impact of these ‘life events/stages’? For example, for lower income families, how can they be supported to better manage the financial and compounded effects of ‘crises’? How can stepfamilies be supported to adjust to new family realities? How do the needs and aspirations of individual family members change over time and across ‘life events/stages’?
3 / Family resilience in Singapore / How can we best measure family resilience in Singapore? What are effective ways to strengthen family resilience?
4 / Effect of living arrangements on family relationships and support / To investigate if differences in living arrangements (i.e. with, near or far from each other) affect the strength of family relationship and family support (e.g. instrumental, emotional, care arrangements).
5 / Ageing families / In 2022, the first batch of baby-boomers turn 75 (a point when physical and mental health generally starts to decline). The confluence with the growing number of singles and married couples without children means that more individuals are likely to be left without an immediate family caregiver. To investigate the different support systems to provide for the physical, emotional and financial needs of such elderly.
To also identify and develop a better understanding of the key emerging groups of ageing families e.g. aged divorcees, and families comprising a “younger old” looking after an “older old”; attitudes and expectations of roles in aged households; and the key predictors of resilience in ageing families and how these differ from the current groups of ageing families.
6 / Extended families / In Singapore, families have always been seen as the first line of support. Given the smaller families today and an ageing population, many of us will need to depend on our extended family for support as we age. How can the broader family network be encouraged and supported to play agreater role?
To explore whether the family unit in Singapore is understood narrowly in nuclearized terms, or if non-nuclear relatives are also commonly regarded as part of the “family” unit. To investigate the support systems among extended family networks, in particular the diagonal relationships between uncles/ aunts and their nephews/ nieces.
7 / Sandwiched families / To investigate family functioning, family dynamics, stressors and resiliency factors among families with dependent children and the elderly.The study can also explore the dynamics and unique challenges faced by four-generation families.
8 / Impact of globalisation on family ties and relationships / To investigate how global trends have influenced family ties, relationships and family’s rootedness to Singapore. This study can discuss globalisation in terms of cultured factors, economic conditions and social norms and behaviours such as marrying someone of a different nationality.
9 / Understanding the dynamics and stressors in marriages / To investigate the unique challenges faced by different couple archetypes (e.g. where both spouses are Singapore citizens (SCs), one spouse is SC and other is non-SC), young couples aged 18-24, how couples in such marriages have coped with challenges and the protective factors that enable them to overcome these challenges.
To understand the impact of social support/influence (beyond immediate family members e.g. friends) on the quality and maintenance of marriages.
10 / Impact of first-born child bearing experiences on family size and family functioning / To investigate how couples’ experience in having their first-born child affects their subsequent decision to have more children. To explore what factors affect decisions to have higher-order births (e.g. the third child) and how these decisions impact on family functioning and other outcomes.
11 / Retirement adequacy of stay-at-home mothers. / Stay-at-home mothers tend to be financially reliant on their husbands due to the years that they were economicallyinactive. They may not have adequate financial support in their older years, especially since women tend to have longer life expectancies than men.To research and propose suitable intervention measures to address this issue, taking reference from best practices overseas.
12 / Division of labour in the household / To explore the division of labour (e.g. time spent on the chores, caregiving duties) in the household, and investigate factors that may affect the division of labour.
Family - Work Life
13 / Achieving work-life reconciliation / To investigate the factors that encourage or inhibit men and women from achieving work-life reconciliation, assess the effectiveness of various flexi-work initiatives and propose measures to better attain work-life reconciliation.
14 / Workforce decisions of mothers and caregivers / To investigate the opportunities and challenges that female Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs) face when balancing their careers with their responsibilities as mothers or caregivers, and how these influence their decision to remain, return to, or exit the workforce.
Family - Vulnerable Families
15 / Causes and pathways of intra-familial elder abuse or disabled adult abuse/neglect;
Intervention strategies and their relative effectiveness across different family profiles / To investigate the broad causes and corresponding trajectories (i.e. how it develops/escalates and the final state) of intra-familial abuse/neglect of elderly and disabled adults; modes of intervention to restore family function and the profile of families that are most and least likely to respond positively to intervention.
16 / Fictive kinship / [Related to items 5 and 6 above] Singapore is expected to see a significant increase in the number of older persons with no immediate next-of-kin to look after them (e.g. childless elderly). This study should explore the role of fictive kin in providing care and support to such persons. What policies and schemes can be introduced to better recognise the role of fictive kin? What safeguards must be in place to prevent exploitation of vulnerable elderly?
17 / Post-divorce support / To investigate post-divorce support arrangements, such as child maintenance and child access, in particular the problems faced by non-custodial parents in terms of child access.
Family - Child Development
18 / Parenting, caregiving and child outcomes / To understand how and why parental involvement, parenting styles, disciplinary practices and other forms of support beyond immediate family members (e.g. friends etc.) have an impact on family relationships and child outcomes. The study should also preferably highlight potential confounding variables such as differences in parent’s working status (e.g. full-time, dual-income with one part-time parent, single-income), family background (e.g. single parent, one parent is a non-citizen, stepparent).
To study the strength and types of vertical transmission of values between generations.
To study the impact of various parents' parenting styles and disciplinary practices on children's socialisation and self-regulating behaviours.
To study the impact of different forms of care (e.g. parents, maids, grandparents, nannies, baby- sitters, teachers) on the children’s development.
To study the impact of home learning environment on children's development e.g. how home reading practices/ parents’ conversations with their children affects their children/language(s) spoken at home especially in the case of transnational families and vocabulary development).
To study parents’ perception and impact of media consumption (e.g. mobile devices. internet) on children’s development.
To examine parents’ i) understanding of parenting, child development, and developmental domains, ii) parenting styles and its sources of influence, and iii) the implications on government outreach strategies in their work with parents on child development.
To examine parents’ perception of their (parenting) role, and the roles development centres are expected to play.
To study how i) the proportion of time parents spend with their child, ii) the type and depth of parent-child interaction, and iii) the environment where interaction takes place, affect the child’s socio-emotional, cognitive and linguistic development.
19 / Challenges faced by children of cross-cultural marriages / To understand the difficulties faced by children (e.g. in school, home, community) where at least one parent is a non-citizen relative to children whose parents are both citizens. To also understand their sense of belonging and rootedness to Singapore.
20 / Impact of parental marital history on children’s attitudes on family / To investigate if different family backgrounds (e.g. married, divorced, widowed, remarried parents, marriages where one partner is a foreigner or different cultural background) influence children’s attitudes towards dating, partnership formation, marriage and parenthood.
Society and Community - Social Safety Nets
21 / Understanding the spending, budgeting and savings patterns, attitudes and behaviour of low-income households / To study the attitudes and behavioural patterns of low-income households concerning how they manage, spend and save their money. To understand how low-income households manage money given to them (e.g. save, spend [and on what], invest, repay debt).
22 / Family and social networks among low-income households / To study the type and strength of social and family networks of low-income households (such as social/family capital to address emotional, financial and practical needs like caregiving or seeking employment). To identify how strong social networks are formed and sustained among low-income households.
23 / Social Mobility / What are the risk and protective factors that warrant intervention or social assistance (e.g. low income, offending behaviours)? How important is individual resilience and motivation as a factor affecting life outcomes? What are effective ways to develop and strengthen social and emotional skills related to resilience and motivation to manage the stresses of everyday life?
How important is social capital as a factor affecting life outcomes? For those at higher risk of remaining entrenched, what are effective ways to facilitate their access to social capital networks and leverage on these networks?
24 / Emerging vulnerable groups / How is vulnerability understood in Singapore’s context? What are the emerging vulnerable groups, and what are the drivers causing these groups to be vulnerable? How can we better support these groups?
Society and Community - Social Support
25 / Disability support / With the ageing population and smaller families, the caregiving and support systems for persons with disabilities are likely to be significantly affected. To investigate the different support systems that provide for the physical, emotional and financial needs of persons with disabilities and also their caregivers. What more can be done to better support persons with disabilities and also their caregivers?
Services and Support Structure - Rehabilitation and Protection
26 / Validation and norming of psychometric measures / Investigation of the factor structure and psychometric properties of established measures of psychopathology or quality of life used to evaluate the effectiveness of local rehabilitative psychological services. Development of local norms of established measures of psychopathology or quality of life for the Singapore general population.
27 / Perspectives of children who have been abused or neglected / What are the experiences of abused children in Singapore? How effective do they perceive the child protection intervention(s) to be?
28 / Role of the family in child protection and welfare / Family members play important roles in ensuring the safety and welfare of a child who has been abused or neglected. However, it can be difficult to gain the commitment and participation of family members, especially when the abuse or neglect was by a family member. What are the factors that lead to better engagement of such families such that the home environment is safe for the child to grow up in? How can child protection and child welfare workers better support families?
Services and Support Structure - Early Childhood Development Sector
30 / Accessibility and affordability / To study the factors influencing how families of different income levels select pre-schools.
31 / Industry structure and resourcing and regulation / To study pre-school teachers’ motivational factors (e.g. professional development opportunities, career progression, recognition of achievement, involvement in decision making etc.) and the impact of hygiene factors (e.g. work environment, compensation and benefits, support from management etc.) on pre-school teacher attraction and retention in the early childhood sector.
32 / Teacher preparation and professional development / To study the impact of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes (at pre-schools and off-site) on the quality of pre-school teaching.
33 / Parents' perception of early childhood sector in Singapore / To study the factors influencing parents' perception of early childhood care and education and early childhood professionals.
Services and Support Structure - Programme, Delivery Planning & Evaluation
34 / Service improvement / To explore the role of the community, the government, voluntary welfare organisations and other stakeholders in serving the needy and vulnerable. How can agencies better coordinate their respective roles to better help the needy and the vulnerable?
Ways to better identify community's needs, harness the community, other stakeholders (including private sector) and other resources in meeting the community's needs.
To explore effective social interventions or programme components that can be replicated systematically in Singapore.
To explore best practices in service integration and examples of other models of service delivery.
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