LOVING study tests video feedback coaching to boost sensitive caregiving and children’s long-term well-being.

Singapore researchers have begun the country’s largest parenting trial to test how coaching parents in sensitive, responsive caregiving can improve young children’s emotional, cognitive and physical health, especially in time-strapped, screen-saturated families.

Study Scale And Design
The LOVING study, Singapore’s largest parenting randomised controlled trial, will recruit 624 median to lower income families with children aged two to five and a half from May 26. Led by experts from NUS Medicine, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, A*STAR’s Institute for Human Development and Potential and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, it will compare three groups: a home based video feedback programme, locally contextualised video lessons and online education on brain, learning and relationships.

Why Sensitive Caregiving Matters
Sensitive caregiving is defined as noticing a child’s cues, interpreting them accurately and responding promptly and appropriately, a pattern linked internationally to better behaviour regulation, social and cognitive development and even lower obesity risk. Lead researcher Associate Professor Anne Rifkin Graboi said Singapore’s faster pace, digital exposure and stressors hit lower income families harder, and the team aims to adapt a proven international programme to boost both mental and physical health outcomes here.

Policy Support And National Links
Senior Minister of State Sun Xueling launched the study on May 4, noting it will generate robust local data on scalable, acceptable caregiving interventions that can feed into national efforts like Grow Well SG. She highlighted how earlier longitudinal studies, GUSTO and the Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study, have already shaped policies such as updated screen use guidelines and individual health plans for children.

Inside The Video Feedback Coaching
In the intensive arm, parents are filmed doing simple tasks such as the Don’t Touch Snack activity, where a child waits before eating two favourite snacks, starting with the less preferred. Interveners then review clips with caregivers to highlight sensitive discipline, like using play, language and choices to help a child wait without harshness; parents such as homemaker Sarah Lee say the sessions helped them manage tantrums by strengthening emotional bonds through play, hugs and calm strategies like timeouts.

Rethinking Discipline And Success
Child specialist Hana Alhadad said the project reframes parenting from “How do we control behaviour?” to “What do children need to feel safe and ready to learn,” stressing that responsive care builds emotion regulation, relationships and engagement. The research team will track changes through home observations, interviews and lab tests of executive function, health and stress to see how warm, attuned parenting shifts physiology and behaviour, with Prof Rifkin Graboi emphasising that a secure, joyful parent child relationship ultimately matters more than elite performance in sports or academics.

The LOVING trial signals Singapore’s commitment to grounding parenting support in rigorous local science while recognising that sensitive caregiving is a teachable skill, not an inborn trait. Indonesians and Singaporeans can see in this work a shared regional priority: helping families, especially under pressure, build everyday interactions that protect children’s mental and physical health and strengthen the foundations of future human capital.

Sources: Straits Times (2026)

Keywords: LOVING Study, Video Feedback Intervention, Sensitive Discipline, NUS Medicine, Grow Well SG