Long-term socialisation goals and evaluations of infant behaviour in a variety of everyday contexts were studied among 45 mothers who had immigrated from Central America to the United States, and 41 mothers from European American backgrounds. In accord with expectations based on broad cultural constructs, mothers from Central America emphasised long-term socialisation goals related to Proper Demeanour. In addition, when describing and evaluating everyday situations, they were likely to attribute the desirability or undesirability of these situations to the child's own appropriate and cooperative behaviour, and were likely to highlight mutual enjoyment when describing preferred play situations. In contrast, Euro-American mothers emphasised long-term socialisation goals related to Self-Maximisation, and when describing undesirable everyday situations, stressed the role of external factors not under the child's control, presumably to preserve the child's self-esteem. However, it was also found that the Central American mothers endorse selected aspects of individualism related to promoting their children's economic and personal potential in the United States. These findings point not only to the multidimensional nature of individualism, but also to the heterogeneity of beliefs among Latino populations. The importance of studying within-group variation with regard to the individualism/sociocentrism construct is highlighted.

Everyday infant experiences among the Aka hunter-gatherers and the neighboring Ngandu farmers were observed and compared. Twenty Aka and 21 Ngandu 3- to 4-month-olds and 20 Aka and 20 Ngandu 9- to 10-month-olds were observed for 3 hr on each of 4 days so that all 12 daylight hr were covered. The Aka infants were more likely to be held, fed, and asleep or drowsy, whereas Ngandu infants were more likely to be alone and to fuss or cry, smile, vocalize, or play. The amount of crying, soothing, feeding, and sleeping declined over time in both groups. Distal social interaction increased over time among the Ngandu but not among the Aka. Despite striking cultural differences on many variables, however, functional context systematically affected the relative prominence of the infants' behavior in both cultural groups.

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The current study examines generational differences in Turkish mothers' socialization goals following migration to Germany. A total of 78 working-class mothers from three different groups (Turkish first-and second-generation, and German non-migrant) participated. Each mother had a child between 18 and 36 months of age. Mothers were interviewed using the Socialization Goals Interview. The results indicate that compared to both groups of Turkish mothers, German mothers placed more emphasis on self-control as a socialization goal, and compared with the first-generation mothers only, were more concerned that their child develop characteristics associated with psychological independence and self-confidence. Among the Turkish mothers, more highly educated mothers placed less emphasis on the importance of respect towards others than did less educated mothers.

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