RESUMEN
The development of self-regulation has been studied primarily in Western middle-class contexts and has, therefore, neglected what is known about culturally varying self-concepts and socialization strategies. The research reported here compared the self-regulatory competencies of German middle-class (N = 125) and rural Cameroonian Nso preschoolers (N = 76) using the Marshmallow test (Mischel, 2014). Study 1 revealed that 4-year-old Nso children showed better delay-of-gratification performance than their German peers. Study 2 revealed that culture-specific maternal socialization goals and interaction behaviors were related to delay-of-gratification performance. Nso mothers' focus on hierarchical relational socialization goals and responsive control seems to support children's delay-of-gratification performance more than German middle-class mothers' emphasis on psychological autonomous socialization goals and sensitive, child-centered parenting.
Asunto(s)
Conducta Infantil/etnología , Desarrollo Infantil/fisiología , Descuento por Demora/fisiología , Conducta Materna/etnología , Responsabilidad Parental/etnología , Autocontrol , Socialización , Adulto , Camerún/etnología , Preescolar , Comparación Transcultural , Femenino , Alemania/etnología , Humanos , Masculino , Población RuralRESUMEN
The overarching goal of the present study was to trace the development of mirror self-recognition (MSR), as an index of toddlers' sense of themselves and others as autonomous intentional agents, in different sociocultural environments. A total of 276 toddlers participated in the present study. Toddlers were either 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, or 21 months old at their first assessment and completed weekly MSR assessments over a period of 6 weeks (N = 1,577). The toddlers and their families were from one of four sociocultural contexts: A prototypical autonomous sociocultural context (urban German middle-class families, n = 82), two prototypical relational sociocultural contexts (rural Indian and rural Nso families living in subsistence-based ecologies, n = 54 and n = 80, respectively), or an autonomous-relational sociocultural context (urban Indian middle-class families, n = 60). In line with previous research, we hypothesized that the onset of MSR would be earlier in sociocultural contexts in which mothers value and support their toddlers' development of autonomy. In addition, we considered three factors that covary with culture and that might compromise the cross-cultural validity of MSR as a behavioral measure of toddlers' sense of themselves as independent agents: familiarity with mirrors, culture-specific norms of expressive behavior, and motivation for tactile exploration. Finally, we analyzed toddlers' reactions to their specular image (e.g., pointing, playmate, and experimenting behavior) across time and culture as well as their relation to MSR. The results indicate that MSR increased with age in all sociocultural contexts. In line with our hypotheses, MSR rates were higher in the autonomy-supporting cultural context (urban German, urban Indian) than they were in the relational cultural contexts(rural Indian, rural Nso). The sociocultural differences in MSR could not, however, be explained by differences in mirror familiarity or culture-specific norms of expressive behavior. The cross-cultural validity of MSR as an index of toddlers' sense of themselves as independent agents is further supported by positive associations between MSR and pronoun use in all sociocultural contexts. Cross-cultural variation in MSR could best be explained by caretakers' emphasis on autonomous socialization goals, followed by toddlers' motivation for tactile exploration. These findings enhance our current understanding of development in more general terms by adding one more puzzle piece to the emerging picture of culture-specific developmental pathways. In order to understand developmental processes, one must take into account caretakers' cultural models and exercise caution when generalizing beyond the specific sociocultural context at hand.
Asunto(s)
Comparación Transcultural , Reconocimiento en Psicología , Autoimagen , Clase Social , Desarrollo Infantil , Estudios de Cohortes , Femenino , Alemania , Humanos , India , Lactante , Masculino , Relaciones Madre-Hijo , Población Rural , Encuestas y Cuestionarios , Población UrbanaRESUMEN
This study analyzed German and Nso mothers' auditory, proximal, and visual contingent responses to their infants' nondistress vocalizations in postnatal Weeks 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. Visual contingency scores increased whereas proximal contingency scores decreased over time for the independent (German urban middle-class, N = 20) but not the interdependent sociocultural context (rural Nso farmers, N = 24). It seems, therefore, that culture-specific differences in the modal patterns of contingent responsiveness emerge during the 2nd and 3rd months of life. This differential development was interpreted as the result of the interplay between maturational processes associated with the 2-month shift that are selectively integrated and reinforced in culture-specific mother-infant interaction.
Asunto(s)
Comunicación , Comparación Transcultural , Países en Desarrollo , Conducta del Lactante , Relaciones Madre-Hijo/etnología , Conducta Social , Atención , Camerún , Femenino , Alemania , Humanos , Lactante , Desarrollo del Lenguaje , Masculino , Responsabilidad Parental/psicología , Medio SocialRESUMEN
In this study we analyzed similarities and differences in the contingency experiences of 159 three-month-olds from 6 sociocultural contexts. Across contexts, caretakers responded with similar overall contingency levels, vocalizations provided the dominant response as well as the most salient signal, and there was a relative signal-response correspondence. With two exceptions, infants in all samples most often got responses addressing their sense of hearing, followed by the sense of touch and then sight. In response to nondistress vocalizations, infants from independent contexts (Berlin, Los Angeles) experienced more contingent responses addressing their sense of sight than infants from autonomous-related (Beijing, Delhi, urban Nso from Cameroon) or interdependent contexts (rural Nso). Rural Nso infants experienced more contingent responses addressing their sense of touch than infants from all other but the Los Angeles sample. These results support the interpretation of contingent responsiveness as a part of the intuitive parenting program that manifests differentially depending on culture-specific emphases on distal and proximal caretaking.
Asunto(s)
Cultura , Conducta Social , Medio Social , Adulto , Factores de Edad , Desarrollo Infantil/fisiología , Femenino , Humanos , Lactante , Aprendizaje/fisiología , Masculino , Relaciones Madre-Hijo/etnología , Factores SocioeconómicosRESUMEN
Parenting ethnotheories represent an organized set of ideas about parents, children, and development that are shared by members of cultural groups. Because these ideas and beliefs reflect cultural models and serve as representational frameworks for parenting strategies, they need to change with historical time. To analyze these changes, the authors interviewed mothers and grandmothers of 3-month-old infants in 4 different cultural environments--urban German middle-class families (41 mothers, 22 grandmothers), urban Indian middle-class families (36 mothers, 12 grandmothers), rural Cameroonian Nso families (29 mothers, 20 grandmothers), and urban Cameroonian Nso families (28 mothers, 12 grandmothers)--in regard to their ideas about infant care. The interviews were analyzed according to content and discourse style. The results reveal that there is not only transmission of parental beliefs from one generation to the next but also variation in adaptation to changing environments. Although the global trend toward more independent cultural models of parenting is confirmed, the magnitude of change varies across the different cultural environments.
Asunto(s)
Familia/etnología , Cuidado del Lactante/psicología , Madres/psicología , Responsabilidad Parental/etnología , Responsabilidad Parental/psicología , Adolescente , Adulto , Anciano , Anciano de 80 o más Años , Camerún , Familia/psicología , Femenino , Alemania , Humanos , India , Lactante , Relaciones Intergeneracionales , Entrevistas como Asunto , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Análisis Multivariante , Población Rural , Población UrbanaRESUMEN
Early dialogues between parent and child constitute an important factor for the acquisition of culture and hence verbal interaction is considered to be a universal parenting system. Parenting strategies and socialization practices are strongly influenced by the cultural conception of the self, prototypically defined as the model of independence and interdependence. Our study focuses on the temporal organization of spontaneous verbal/vocal behavior of 20 German middle-class and 28 Cameroonian Nso mother-infant dyads. The infants and their mothers were observed weekly in a 5 min free-play interaction scene from 0 to 3 months of age. We hypothesized to find different amounts of vocalization time, synchronous vocalizations, and contingent maternal responses in the verbal/vocal patterns of the two samples. The findings indicate cross-cultural differences in the temporal structure of verbal/vocal interactions already during the first three months of life, reflecting underlying differences in the culture-specific modes of verbal interaction.