Parent-Infant Interaction in Families on Israeli Kibbutzim

Abstract

Thirty-eight first-born kibbutz-reared infants and their parents were observed in the parents' living quarters when the infants were 8 and 16 months of age. Although childcare was the primary responsibility of nonparental caretakers (metaplot) rather than either parent, sex differences in parental behavior similar to those observed in the US and Sweden were found. As in these countries, kibbutz mothers were more likely to vocalize, laugh, display affection, hold, and engage in caretaking than fathers were. This suggests that immediate competing demands on the parents' time do not account for the widely-observed sex differences in parental behavior. Whereas American infants (especially boys) develop preferences on attachment behavior measures for the same sex parent and Swedish infants develop preferences for their mothers, these kibbutz infants showed no preferences for either parent, suggesting that the relatively similar involvement of mothers and fathers in childcare in the kibbutz context may counteract the tendency to form preferential relationships.

Fathers’ influences on children’s development: The evidence from two-parent families

“…Aka (hunter gatherer) (Hewlett, 1987), German (Best et al, 1994) and Swedish (Lamb, Frodi, Frodi, & Hwang, 1982), fathers are not notably more playful than mothers. Indeed Taiwanese fathers report that they seldom play with their children (Sun & Roopnarine, 1996), and men on Israeli kibbutzim do not play with their 8-and 16-month-olds more than mothers do, despite the traditional division of parental responsibilities (Sagi, Lamb, Shoham, Dvir, & Lewkowicz, 1985). There is evidence to suggest that we should treat families from different sections of society in different ways.…”

Parent–Infant Rough Play: Its Cultural Specificity

“…This was not the case for Swedish or Israeli parents, however. Swedish mothers and fathers did not differ in the rates of physical or minor physical play they engaged in with infants Lamb, Frodi, Hwang, & Frodi, 1983), nor did Israeli mothers and fathers differ in rates of physical play with infants (Sagi, Lamb, Shoham, Dvir, & Lewkowicz, 1985). In these two latter studies, physical play occurred infrequently; in over an hour of observation, rough play occurred only about once on average.…”

The ‘parental voice’: how the infant-toddler (zero to three years) education system should deal with parents

“…Moreover, the absence of support bodies for educators concerning their work vis-a-vis the parents often leaves them 'alone' in the battle, while serving as the object of parents' projections. Sagi et al (1985), and Stern (1995) emphasise that a significant variable in determining the model which is implemented by a Early Child Development and Care person upon entry into the role of parent is the type and quality of the relationship, as experienced in childhood with one's own parents, and that this experience shall have a key influence and direct the person's approach, behaviours and attitudes regarding the relationship with his or her own children. This explanation is termed 'intergenerational transference' in the literature, meaning the development of a chain of relation transferences from generation to generation, in shaping the parental role.…”

“…Many researchers (Ainsworth et al in Ben-Aharon, 1997;Lamb, 1997;Sagi et al, 1985) emphasise that part of a parent's ability to be available and suitable as a secure attachment object for the child feeds not only on the parent's personality and past, but also on the social arrangements into which he or she is born and into which the children shall be raised.…”

“…Despite the continued existence of the representations and internalisations handed down by the parents to their children, an ever-increasing gap between these unconscious parts and the conditions of the new reality has formed, decreasing the benefit of the psychological mechanism of intergenerational transference. With the decline in the power and meaning of this mechanism in the lives of parents nowadays (mainly for fathers as emphasised by Lamb, 1997), due to the accelerated changes, many of them have been left exposed to the parts arousing anxiety and ambiguousness and lack the possibility of relying on a calming, organising mechanism (Anthony & Benedek, 1970;Lamb, 1997;Sagi et al, 1985;Stern, 1995). The rise of anxiety as a major factor in the parents' lives leads them to make various choices of calming, even if not effective and suitable, alternatives, efficiently marketed in the communicational abundance society of the twenty-first century.…”