This chapter attempts to unfold the family drama of mainland Chinese migrants in Singapore in terms of their gender and generation politics—the interpersonal as well as role conflicts within the domestic domain as they were engendered and negotiated during the migration process. The “better life” promise of migration for each and every family member was scrutinised—each time gazing at a different member in the context of his or her institutionalised position in the family. As it happened, divided rather than common interests emerged. Not all benefited from moving. Yet all were convinced of the family having made “the right move”. The social construction of the family was further strengthened by transnationalism, which reproduced the “reality” of family solidarity through mundane everyday life activities acted out across borders. But when internalised as a construct, an ideal, the family bonded its members—thus its internal cohesiveness. It also bound and controlled the self. Sure there were gains, but there were also losses, especially on the part of the less powerful. Globalization and transnationalism have yet to fulfil their promises.

This study aimed to ascertain the impact of parent’s criminal justice involvement on offspring’s contact with the criminal justice system in Singapore. It further analyzed how various aspects of parent’s criminal justice involvement influence the extent of the intergenerational transmission. Linked administrative data of five full birth cohorts (1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985; N = 93,829) and their children were analyzed (Nchildren = 183,015). Restricted mean survival time (RMST) analyses were conducted, and results suggested that children whose parent had contact with the criminal justice system had fewer crime-free years compared to children whose parent did not have any criminal justice contact. In addition, the impact of paternal and maternal involvement with the criminal justice system was greater on daughters than sons; the impact of custodial sentences was greater than that of noncustodial sentences; and it was also found that a higher frequency of parent’s criminal justice involvement increased the likelihood of children’s contact with the criminal justice system. Intergenerational transmission of criminal justice involvement was observed in Singapore, and so the findings highlighted the importance of supporting families of offenders to disrupt the negative cycle of offending behavior. © 2022, The Author(s).

The associations between perceived maternal parenting styles and emerging adults’ romantic relationship quality (commitment and compromise) were examined in the Singaporean context. Participants were 155 ethnic Chinese Singaporeans aged 18 to 25, who were in current romantic relationships that had lasted for at least one month prior to the study. Participants completed the locally-validated Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) that measured perceived authoritative and authoritarian parenting by mothers, along with the commitment subscale of the Relationship Experiences Questionnaire and the compromise subscale of the Conflict Resolution Behavior Questionnaire. Latent Profile Analysis showed that 107 individuals had authoritative mothers, while 48 had authoritarian mothers. Emerging adults with authoritative mothers tended to compromise more than those with authoritarian mothers, whereas those with authoritarian mothers reported greater commitment. Authoritativeness was related to greater compromise in romantic relationships, but less commitment towards a romantic partner. Authoritarianism was neither related to commitment nor compromise. The findings showed that parenting styles continued to play a role in romantic relationship quality in emerging adulthood. Furthermore, Baumrind’s parenting typology, particularly authoritative and authoritarian parenting, may have a different functional meaning in the Singaporean context. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.