The Bio-Culture of Parenting: Evidence From Five Cultural Communities

Abstract

SYNOPSISObjective. This study analyzes culturally formed parenting styles during infancy, as related to the sociocultural orientations of independence and interdependence. Design. Free-play situations between mothers and 3-month-old infants were videotaped in 5 cultural communities that differ according to their sociocultural orientations: cultural communities in West Africa (N = 26), Gujarat in India (N = 39), Costa Rica (N = 21), Greece (N = 51), and Germany (N = 56). The videotapes were analyzed using coding systems that operationalize the component model of parenting with a focus on 4 parenting systems, including body contact, body stimulation, object stimulation, and face-to-face contact. Results. 2 styles of parenting (distal and proximal) can be related to the sociocultural orientations of independence and interdependence. It is apparent that they express parenting priorities in particular ecocultural environments. Conclusions. Infants participate, from birth on, in sociocultural activities that are committed to cultural goals and values which inform parenting behaviors.

Cultural Models, Socialization Goals, and Parenting Ethnotheories

“…Mothers of these groups had achieved a high level of education, are relatively older, and have fewer children than the mothers in the other groups. This sociodemographic profile has been confirmed as characteristic for women with an independent cultural model in different studies (Keller, 2003a;Keller et al, 2005;Keller, Lohaus, et al, 2004;.…”

“…The parenting ethnotheories were assessed with a list of 10 statements describing parenting practices. These 10 statements were assigned to an autonomous (5 items) or relational (5 items) Parenting Ethnotheories subscale based on earlier studies on cultural conceptions of parenting (Keller, 2003a;Keller et al, 2002;Keller et al, 2005) 160 JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY as well as cultural differences in parenting styles (Keller, 2003a;Keller, Lohaus, et al, 2004;. The mothers were asked to express their agreement on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from not agree at all (1) to agree completely (5).…”

Development of Emotion Regulation in Cultural Context

“…Observational studies in non-Western communities indicate the importance of close body contact between mother and child for "successful" regulatory development (Keller et al, 2004) while Western investigators consistently suggest that prolonged body contact leads to overdependence of the child on the caregiver. According to Western socialization beliefs, parents must facilitate the progression from dependence to autonomy, self-efficacy, and self-determination, and too much dependence or too much delay in shifting to independence undermine regulation (Shweder et al, 1998).…”

How Usual Is “Play As You Usually Would”? A Comparison of Naturalistic Mother-Infant Interactions with Videorecorded Play Sessions in Three Cultural Communities

“…It is this contrast between the naturalistic and play frames for doing infantmother interaction observations that we compare in this study. Most of the data used in this study, except for the Greek observational data, have been used in previous publications [4,8,11], though this is the first study to compare the frames. The Greek data collection was coordinated by the second author of this paper and the observations were made by graduate students.…”

“…Using this instruction in research studies has led to interesting results on caregiverinfant interactions. The authors of these cross-cultural studies show concern for the potential inappropriateness of their procedures, focused on the appropriateness of their translations [4] or the procedure's ethnographic validity [5]. However, in many cultural communities playing with adults is not viewed as a valuable activity for adults or infants [6,7].…”