The ecocultural context and child behavior problems: A qualitative analysis in rural Nepal

Abstract

Commonly used paradigms for studying child psychopathology emphasize individual-level factors and often neglect the role of context in shaping risk and protective factors among children, families, and communities. To address this gap, we evaluated influences of ecocultural contextual factors on definitions, development of, and responses to child behavior problems and examined how contextual knowledge can inform culturally responsive interventions. We drew on Super and Harkness’ “developmental niche” framework to evaluate the influences of physical and social settings, childcare customs and practices, and parental ethnotheories on the definitions, development of, and responses to child behavior problems in a community in rural Nepal. Data were collected between February and October 2014 through in-depth interviews with a purposive sampling strategy targeting parents (N=10), teachers (N=6), and community leaders (N=8) familiar with child-rearing. Results were supplemented by focus group discussions with children (N=9) and teachers (N=8), pile-sort interviews with mothers (N=8) of school-aged children, and direct observations in homes, schools, and community spaces. Behavior problems were largely defined in light of parents’ socialization goals and role expectations for children. Certain physical settings and times were seen to carry greater risk for problematic behavior when children were unsupervised. Parents and other adults attempted to mitigate behavior problems by supervising them and their social interactions, providing for their physical needs, educating them, and through a shared verbal reminding strategy (samjhaune). The findings of our study illustrate the transactional nature of behavior problem development that involves context-specific goals, roles, and concerns that are likely to affect adults’ interpretations and responses to children’s behavior. Ultimately, employing a developmental niche framework will elucidate setting-specific risk and protective factors for culturally compelling intervention strategies.

Validation of a cross-cultural instrument for child behavior problems: the Disruptive Behavior International Scale – Nepal version

“…In the second stage, a research assistant conducted screening of children age 5–15 residing within each selected household. The researcher read gender-specific vignettes of children with mild-moderate behavior problems (based on previous qualitative studies in Nepal [ 17 – 19 ]) to the head of the household and asked him or her to rate (on a 1–4 scale) the extent to which the description applied to each child, and whether they believed they needed support for that child. Children who met the description at least moderately well (i.e.…”

“…This paper primarily reports on selection of items for the final scale and assessment of the scale’s reliability and construct validity. Candidate items were initially generated through: [ 1 ] local qualitative studies including free-listing, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions with parents, teachers, community leaders and peer informants ( n = 39 items) [ 14 , 17 , 19 ], and [ 2 ] a review of validated scales for behavior problems ( n = 49 items), resulting in a total of 62 unique items. Candidate items were refined through cognitive testing with local stakeholders (through focus group discussions and individual interviews).…”

“…The emic nomination form for Nepali behavioral terms was developed for this study based on previous qualitative studies of behavior problems in the study area [ 19 ]. The form includes four common Nepali descriptors of children with behavior problems, including: badmaash (literal translation: naughty/disobedient); chakchake (restless/fidgety), chucho (mean/rude), and bigrieko (literal translation: “spoiled” or “broken”; refers to socially undesirable behavior).…”

Assessing the play and learning environments of children under two years in peri-urban Lima, Peru: A formative research study

“…These three systems of the developmental niche are, in turn, in uenced by broader macro-level/macro-social factors such as poverty, employment, and food insecurity. This theory has guided research into a number of child-related topics, including eating practices among preschoolers in the U.S. and behavioral problems among children in Nepal (33,34). The developmental niche also provides a useful framework for examining the environmental factors shaping ECD during the rst two years of life.…”

Improving detection of mental health problems in community settings in Nepal: development and pilot testing of the community informant detection tool

“…To facilitate mental health problem identification at the community level in Nepal, we developed the Community Informant Detection Tool (CIDT) [ 19 ], an innovative and culturally appropriate tool for detection and referral of persons with one of four target mental health problems included in PRIME: depression, alcohol use problem, psychosis, and epilepsy. As child mental health problems are frequently neglected and children are rarely brought for care [ 20 , 21 ], we added child behavioral problems to explore the potential for engaging children in services. The tool comprises of case vignettes for each mental health problem using local non-stigmatizing idioms accompanied by illustrations.…”