Parenting and Culture

Abstract

This chapter examines the role of culture in parenting. Although successful parenting involves the use of many skills, cultural and otherwise, rituals provide a blueprint that parents, generation after generation, can and have used to influence their children to emulate proper social behavior. Rituals are used to teach children not only what the behavioral codes are, but how to interpret and respond appropriately to social cues. These parental tactics, to the extent they remain traditional, also teach children why they should transmit the same strategies to their own offspring and thus how to perpetuate the behavior into future generations. After discussing parenting in more detail, the chapter focuses on language, which is central to teaching and learning and the foundation on which parents influence their children.

Cultural considerations in the assessment of sensitivity in low-income caregivers in Ethiopia

“…Sensitive caregivers were open to changing the path of the task according to the child's needs, i.e., playing with water if the child started to do it and letting the child lead the activity. Maybe the reason why previous studies reported a lack of pleasant sharing child-caregiver moments in Ethiopia is that they were looking for Western typical dyadic moments, such as playing with toys together and reading books, leaving out all the other important dyadic activities that characterize these child-caregiver interactions (Ringness and Gander, 1974;Cherie and Berhanie, 2015;Coe and Clark, 2021). For instance, Ringness and Gander (1974) reported the prevalence of unsupervised play in young Ethiopian children, a behavior not present in American families.…”

“…Many caregivers involved their children in typical daily activities in Ethiopia, such as preparing traditional coffee, eating, taking care of hair dreads, and accomplishing housekeeping tasks. These daily routines are essential occasions to transmit cultural traditions and habits while sharing playful dyadic caregiver–child moments ( Coe and Clark, 2021 ). Sensitive caregivers were open to changing the path of the task according to the child’s needs, i.e., playing with water if the child started to do it and letting the child lead the activity.…”