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Similarities and Differences in Maternal Responsiveness in Three Societies: Evidence From Fiji, Kenya, and the United States
Abstract
The first relationship between an infant and her caregiver, typically the mother, lays the foundation for cognitive, social, and emotional development. Maternal responsiveness and affect mirroring have been studied extensively in Western societies yet very few studies have systematically examined these caregiving features in non-Western settings. Sixty-six mother-infant dyads (7 months, SD = 3.1) were observed in a small-scale, rural island society in Fiji, a village in Kenya, and an urban center in the United States. Mothers responded similarly to infant bids overall, but differences were found across societies in the ways mothers selectively respond to affective displays. This has implications for understanding early emotion socialization as well as understanding variation in infant social ecologies across the globe.
... Although parental responsiveness to infant signals is regarded as universal, because it has been observed in both Western and non-Western populations (Broesch et al., 2016;Keller et al., 1988Keller et al., , 1992, cross-cultural research has also shown important variations in its manifestations (Bornstein et al., 1992;Fogel et al., 1988;Kärtner et al., 2010;Richman et al., 1992). For example, although African (Kenyan) and Asian (Fijian) mothers are particularly likely to respond to infants when they express distress, European or North American mothers do so when infants show positive communication (Broesch et al., 2016;Richman et al., 1988). ...
... Although parental responsiveness to infant signals is regarded as universal, because it has been observed in both Western and non-Western populations (Broesch et al., 2016;Keller et al., 1988Keller et al., , 1992, cross-cultural research has also shown important variations in its manifestations (Bornstein et al., 1992;Fogel et al., 1988;Kärtner et al., 2010;Richman et al., 1992). For example, although African (Kenyan) and Asian (Fijian) mothers are particularly likely to respond to infants when they express distress, European or North American mothers do so when infants show positive communication (Broesch et al., 2016;Richman et al., 1988). A recent study comparing dyads from Italy and Africa (Cameroon, and immigrants from West Africa) highlighted differences in maternal responses to infant positive social behaviors (smiles, vocalizations) during interactions at 1 to3 months: Italians were more likely to respond with affectionate talking, whereas African mothers with tactile stimulation (Lavelli et al., 2019). ...
... Despite the fact that both these possible mechanisms are deeply influenced by cultural values and beliefs, there is only limited research on cultural differences in maternal responses to specific kinds of infant cues. Further, whereas the literature does report cultural differences in maternal responses to children's negative emotions, differences in responses to positive socio-emotional cues have been less often examined (Broesch et al., 2016;Halberstadt & Lozada, 2011;Lavelli et al., 2019) despite their importance: expressing and maintaining such positive states is central in Western societies, where it is one of the main parental socialization goals (Keller & Otto, 2009;Wörmann et al., 2012). Specifically, when considering positive mother-child social exchanges, evidence is lacking on cultural preferences for responding primarily to affective cues (e.g., smiles) versus communications (e.g., pre-speech). ...
Mother-infant interactions, including culturally specific features, have been found to predict child socio-emotional development (e.g., social communication and emotion regulation (ER)). However, research is lacking on the specific processes involved. We used a cross-cultural, longitudinal design, and a microanalytic coding approach to address this issue. Fifty-two mother-infant dyads were recruited from the UK (N = 21) and Italy (N = 31), representing Northern European and Mediterranean cultures, respectively. While these cultures share core features of parent-child relationships, their values about emotional expressiveness differ. We observed face-to-face mother-infant interactions at 2 months (T1), and coded infant socio-emotional behavior and maternal responses. Children were seen again at 2 years (T2), when their ER in the face of frustration, using the Barrier Task, was assessed, and the occurrence of different “mature” strategies (communicative and autonomous) coded. Results revealed common features of interactions at T1 (infant socio-emotional expressions, and maternal positive responses), but also cultural variation in the frequency of different infant cues (more pre-speech in UK infants, more smiles in Italians), and of maternal responses to them. While greater overall maternal responsiveness at T1 predicted more mature ER in general at T2, cultural differences in early responsiveness to specific infant behaviors predicted later group differences in children’s use of particular ER strategies, with UK children using more communicative strategies, and Italians more autonomous. Findings indicate that positive maternal behaviors that are common across cultures (e.g., responsiveness) promote overall successful child emotion regulation, while culturally specific features of interactions are associated with how child socio-emotional outcomes are expressed.
... Maternal responsiveness is operationalized in the literature as contingent changes in maternal behavior occurring within 1-2 seconds of an infant cue (Broesch et al., 2016). Contingent responsiveness shapes social learning (Bigelow & Birch, 1999), language acquisition (Nicely, Tamis-LeMonda, & Bornstein, 1999;Tamis-LeMonda, Kuchirko, & Song, 2014), and attachment formation (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978;Anisfeld, Casper, Nozyce, & Cunningham, 1990;Dunst & Kassow, 2008). ...
... Contingent responsiveness was coded whenever the mother's infant-directed behavior changed within the one-second window after an infant display of positive or negative affect (e.g., baby smiled and mom smiled, baby frowned and mom vocalized). This temporal window is consistent (e.g., Broesch et al., 2016) or even more conservative (e.g., Anisfeld et al., 1990) than past work in the literature on maternal responsiveness. For each participant, we calculated total proportion of cues to which the mother responded (total maternal responses divided by total occurrences of infant positive or negative affect). ...
... Parenting behavior is associated with variation in beliefs about infant care (e.g., Bornstein, Cote, & Venuti, 2001;Broesch et al., 2016;Hewlett & Lamb, 2002;Lamm & Keller, 2007;Shwalb, Shwalb, & Shoji, 1996). The connection between experience with physical contact and increased maternal responsiveness found in Study 1 could be explained by this difference in parenting beliefs, rather than the practice of babywearing. ...
Ethnographic research suggests mother-infant physical contact predicts high levels of maternal responsiveness to infant cues, yet it is unclear whether this responsiveness is driven by the act of physical contact or by underlying beliefs about responsiveness. We examine beliefs and behavior associated with infant carrying (i.e., babywearing) among U.S. mothers and experimentally test the effect of mother-infant physical contact on maternal responsiveness. In Study 1 (N = 23 dyads), babywearing mothers were more likely to interact contingently in response to infant cues than non-babywearing mothers during an in-lab play session. In Study 2 (N = 492 mothers), babywearing predicted maternal beliefs emphasizing responsiveness to infant cues. In Study 3 (N = 20 dyads), we experimentally manipulated mother-infant physical contact in the lab using a within-subjects design and found that babywearing increased maternal tactile interaction, decreased maternal and infant object contact, and increased maternal responsiveness to infant vocalizations. Our results motivate further research examining how culturally-mediated infant carrying practices shape the infant's early social environment and subsequent development.
... For example, Bornstein, Cote, Haynes, Suwalsky, and Bakeman (2012) investigated moment to moment contingencies in Japanese, Japanese American immigrant, and European American dyads (infants age 5.5 months) and found differences between cultural groups in terms of maternal responsiveness within mother-infant objectoriented interactions. Broesch, Rochat, Olah, Broesch, and Henrich (2016) analyzed maternal responsiveness in mother-infant dyads (infant age 7 months) from Fiji, Kenya, and the United States. The authors did not detect cultural differences in maternal responsiveness to infant bids for attention though they did find differences in terms of responsiveness to affective displays. ...
... There is a sound body of work demonstrating the wide variation among caregivers in terms of contingent talk, with a focus on the effects of socioeconomic status (SES; e.g., McGillion et al., 2017) but less is known about the frequency of contingent talk across different cultural groups (Tamis-LeMonda, Song, et al., 2012). This is surprising given the wealth of studies demonstrating strong cultural differences in the extent to which caregivers are willing to treat their infants as communicative partners (Farran et al., 2016;Keller, 2007;Lieven, 1994;Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986) and also the ongoing debate regarding cultural differences in overall sensitive responsiveness to infants (e.g., Broesch et al., 2016;Mesman et al., 2018). Furthermore, there is some evidence to suggest that the normative patterns associated with robust communicative development in European cultures may not work the same way in nonindustrialized cultures (e.g., Mastin & Vogt, 2016) and so investigating contingent talk across cultures is an important avenue of research. ...
Many Western industrialized nations have high levels of ethnic diversity but to date there are very few studies which investigate prelinguistic and early language development in infants from ethnic minority backgrounds. This study tracked the development of infant communicative gestures from 10 to 12 months (n = 59) in three culturally distinct groups in the United Kingdom and measured their relationship, along with maternal utterance frequency and responsiveness, to vocabulary development at 12 and 18 months. No significant differences were found in infant gesture development and maternal responsiveness across the groups, but relationships were identified between gesture, maternal responsiveness, and vocabulary development.
... Past research shows universality in fundamental characteristics of maternal sensitivity across cultures (Ainsworth et al., 1978;Mesman et al., 2016;Posada, Carbonell, Alzate, & Plata, 2004). As emphasised by Ainsworth et al. (1978), there is a need to examine maternal sensitivity cross-culturally to identify its universal and culturally specific features (Broesch, Rochat, Olah, Broesch, & Henrich, 2016;Mesman et al., 2016). The current study aims to empirically describe the patterns of maternal behaviours by grouping mothers based on the pattern of sensitive caregiving behaviours in the Turkish cultural context, where a substantial number of mother-infant dyads lives in economically disadvantaged conditions. ...
... For example, while mothers' responses to infant signals show very similar patterns in Fiji and the USA, their response preference to the type of signal may change. That is, mothers in the US respond more to positive signals, whereas, mothers in Fiji respond more to negative signals (Broesch et al., 2016). Moreover, in Japan mothers show higher physical proximity to their children compared to mothers in the USA because culturally mothers are expected to respond to infant needs proactively, while in the USA mothers are expected to wait for infant signals to respond in a reactive manner (Rothbaum et al., 2000). ...
Objective: This study aims to investigate the patterns of maternal sensitivity via structured and systematic observational methods among mothers from a disadvantaged community in Turkey. Background: Caregiving sensitivity is shaped by cultural parenting ethnotheories, and there is a need to examine in non-Western cultures to see its universal and culturally-specific features.
Method: Ninety-eight mothers and their interactions with infants were videotaped during home-visits, and their caregiving behaviours were assessed via the Maternal Behaviour Q-Set.
Results: Results of the Q-factor analysis revealed two distinct caregiving profiles. The first profile, ‘sensitivity vs. insensitivity’, describes mothers who were characterised by sensitive behaviours to their babies, and acceptance of their infant. Mothers in this group were more aware and responsive to their babies’ needs and demands. The second profile, ‘nonsynchronous vs. synchronous’, describes mothers who showed noncontingent behaviours during interactions such as being unable to follow the pace of the infant or to respond to infants’ needs on time.
Conclusion: This study contributes to the literature by showing that mothers from Turkey can be grouped in terms of sensitivity similar to the previous studies, although the descriptive behaviours of sensitivity may vary.
KEYWORDS: Maternal caregiving behaviours, maternal sensitivity, q-factor analysis, naturalistic observation, low SES
... There is variation in the amount of time caregivers and children spend together and in the kinds of activities they do together (Cole 1996, Gaskins 2006, LeVine 2007. There is also variation in the extent to which children participate in adult economic and social activity (Keller 2007, Rogoff 2003 Variation in socialization beliefs and practices is evident in caregiver-infant interaction (Broesch et al. 2016, Kärtner et al. 2016, Keller 2007, Keller & Kärtner 2013. Caregivers in different populations vary in how they respond to infants' emotional displays (Broesch et al. 2016, Kärtner et al. 2016) and how much they speak to them (Broesch & Bryant 2018, Cristia et al. 2019). ...
... There is also variation in the extent to which children participate in adult economic and social activity (Keller 2007, Rogoff 2003 Variation in socialization beliefs and practices is evident in caregiver-infant interaction (Broesch et al. 2016, Kärtner et al. 2016, Keller 2007, Keller & Kärtner 2013. Caregivers in different populations vary in how they respond to infants' emotional displays (Broesch et al. 2016, Kärtner et al. 2016) and how much they speak to them (Broesch & Bryant 2018, Cristia et al. 2019). There is also substantial variation in the verbal, vocal, and physical modalities caregivers use to communicate with infants (Keller et al. 2006). ...
Human culture is unique among animals in its complexity, variability, and cumulative quality. This article describes the development and diversity of cumulative cultural learning. Children inhabit cultural ecologies that consist of group-specific knowledge, practices, and technologies that are inherited and modified over generations. The learning processes that enable cultural acquisition and transmission are universal but are sufficiently flexible to accommodate the highly diverse cultural repertoires of human populations. Children learn culture in several complementary ways, including through exploration, observation, participation, imitation, and instruction. These methods of learning vary in frequency and kind within and between populations due to variation in socialization values and practices associated with specific educational institutions, skill sets, and knowledge systems. The processes by which children acquire and transmit the cumulative culture of their communities provide unique insight into the evolution and ontogeny of human cognition and culture.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, Volume 1 is December 16, 2019. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... Örneğin; Japonya, Fransa ve Amerika gibi farklı coğrafyalarda yaşayan annelerin çocuklarına bakım verme davranışlarında anlamlı değişiklikler bulunmamıştır (Bornstein ve ark., 1992). Benzer şekilde, Fiji, Kenya ve ABD'de yaşayan annelerin de bebeklerinin ihtiyaçlarına verdiği yanıtların genel olarak birbirine benzer özellikler gösterdiği gözlemlenmiştir (Broesch, Rochat, Olah, Broesch ve Henrich, 2016). Fakat, bu çalışmalara dayanarak duyarlılığın evrensel geçerliliği hipotezinin tamamen desteklendiğini söylemek mümkün değildir. ...
... Great amount of the literature posits maternal caregiving sensitivity as a universal concept that is above and beyond cultural differences (Bornstein et al., 1992;van Ijzendoorn, & Sagi, 1999). However, it has been shown that there might be small differences in maternal caregiving behaviors among cultures (Broesch, Rochat, Olah, Broesch, & Henrich, 2016). Many studies use materials developed to measure Western samples, but it is highly important to test maternal caregiving behaviors across different cultural contexts, such as within Turkey, to understand potential variations in those behaviors. ...
The aim of this study is to reveal naturally occurring variation in maternal caregiving behaviors. Mothers and their interactions
with 7 to 13 month-old infants were observed in intensive three-hour-long home visits by using the Maternal
Behavior Q-Set. One hundred and twelve mother-infant dyads participated in the study. Results of the Q-factor analysis
revealed two different caregiving profiles. The first profile, warmth/responsiveness, describes mothers who are responsive
to their infants’ needs and demands, enjoy intimate interactions with their infants, and follow the pace of the infants
during interactions. The second profile, indifference/aloofness, describes mothers who are indifferent to the needs of
their infants, and respond only if the infants persistently demand attention. Moreover, maternal distress was found to
be positively correlated with the indifference/aloofness profile. These findings indicate that individual differences in
everyday maternal caregiving represent more than one global sensitivity dimension.
Keywords: Maternal caregiving behaviors, maternal responsiveness, Q-factor analysis, naturalistic observation
Özet
Bu çalışmanın amacı, annelerin bakım verme davranışlarındaki bireysel farklılıkları belirlemektir. Annelerin 7-13 ay
yaş aralığındaki bebekleriyle olan etkileşimleri üç saatlik yoğun ev ziyaretlerinde Anne Davranışları Sınıflandırma Seti
kullanılarak gözlemlenmiştir. Araştırmaya toplam 112 anne-bebek çifti katılmıştır. Q-faktör analizleri sonucunda iki
farklı bakım verme profili ortaya çıkmıştır. İlk profil, sıcaklık/duyarlılık, bebeklerinin ihtiyaç ve isteklerine karşı duyarlı
olan, bebekle olan yakın etkileşimden keyif alan ve etkileşimler sırasında bebeğin hızına uyum sağlayan anneleri
tanımlamaktadır. Kayıtsızlık/mesafelilik olarak adlandırdığımız ikinci profil ise bebeklerin ihtiyaçlarına karşı ilgisiz ve
sadece bebeğin ısrarla ilgi istediği durumlarda cevap veren anneleri tanımlamaktadır. Ayrıca, annenin psikolojik stresi
kayıtsızlık/mesafelilik ile pozitif ilişki göstermiştir. Bu bulgular, annelerin günlük bakım verme davranışlarındaki kişisel
farklılıkların tek bir duyarlılık boyutundan daha fazlasını temsil ettiğini göstermektedir.
Anahtar kelimeler: Annelerin bakım verme davranışları, anne duyarlılığı, Q-faktör analizi, doğal gözlem
... Interestingly, what little research that has been done on nonverbal features of ID speech in traditional societies suggests that many of the same acoustic features documented in western mothers' ID speech are present and detectable in small-scale societies as well (Bryant, Lienard & Barrett, 2012;Broesch & Bryant, 2015;Scelza, Bryant, & Cartmill, 2014). This suggests that despite ethnographic reports of significant variation in parenting and child care, some basic elements remain similar across disparate groups (Broesch, Rochat, Olah, Broesch, & Henrich, 2016). ...
... Furthermore, a handful of studies conducted in small-scale rural islands in the South Pacific have also reported significant differences in parent-child interactions, deviating from the Western model of childrearing practices (Broesch et al., 2016;Little, Carver, & Legare, 2016;Rochat et al., 2009). Broesch and co-authors (2016) documented similarities in basic levels of infant responsiveness but differences in the selective responding to emotional bids suggesting that as early as the 1st year of life there are cultural differences in parenting strategies for socializing emotion and nonverbal communicative behavior (see also Legare & Harris, 2016 for a review of different cultural strategies). ...
When speaking to infants, mothers often alter their speech compared to how they speak to adults, but findings for fathers are mixed. This study examined interactions (N = 30) between fathers and infants (Mage ± SD = 7.8 ± 4.3 months) in a small-scale society in Vanuatu and two urban societies in North America. Fundamental frequency (F0 ) and speech rate were measured in infant-directed and adult-directed speech. When speaking to infants, fathers in both groups increased their F0 range, yet only Vanuatu fathers increased their average F0 . Conversely, North American fathers slowed down their speech rate to infants, whereas Vanuatu fathers did not. Behavioral traits can vary across distant cultures while still potentially solving similar communicative problems.
... Some studies have found that responsiveness to a specific area is related to outcomes in that area, such as language versus play (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 1996). Cultural similarities and differences in responsiveness have been studied in Japan, Kenya, and Fiji (e.g., Bornstein et al., 1992;Broesch et al., 2016) but mostly pertaining to mothers' responsive behaviors (vs. effects on children). ...
The purpose of this paper is to bring together and highlight common conceptual elements and findings from constructs that involve parents' consideration of children's viewpoints and experiences: parental sensitivity, empathy, perspective taking, responsiveness, autonomy support, and scaffolding. Research on each of these constructs suggests that consideration in the parenting role is associated with better child development, learning, and well‐being. We examine definitions and measures of the constructs to address how parental consideration has been conceptualized. We also review positive child development indicators that have been associated with it, across various periods, contexts, and domains of development. By drawing attention to this common denominator and adopting an integrative perspective, we hope to contribute to future research and help transfer knowledge to parents about this key, facilitative parenting dimension.
... Although some features of adult-child interactions are similar across cultures (e.g., patterns of maternal responsiveness; Broesch et al., 2016), child development and approaches to parenting vary vastly across cultures (Bornstein, 1991;Hewlett, 1996;LeVine, 2007;Nielsen & Haun, 2016;Whiting & Whiting, 1975). Certain characteristics, such as mutual gaze and frequent face-to-face interactions, which have been assumed to predominantly mark Western cultures, may be more common in non-Western cultures than we currently know (e.g., Wolof-speaking mothers in Senegal frequently instigate and respond to bids for mutual gaze with infants; Diop, 2018). ...
This study investigates how allomaternal care (AMC) impacts human development outside of energetics by evaluating relations between important qualitative and quantitative aspects of AMC and developmental outcomes in a Western population. This study seeks to determine whether there are measurable differences in cognitive and language outcomes as predicted by differences in exposure to AMC via formal (e.g., childcare facilities) and informal (e.g., family and friends) networks. Data were collected from 102 mothers and their typically developing infants aged 13–18 months. AMC predictor data were collected using questionnaires, structured daily diaries, and longitudinal interviews. Developmental outcomes were assessed using the Cognitive, Receptive Language, and Expressive Language subtests of the Bayley III Screening Test. Additional demographic covariates were also evaluated. Akaike Information Criterion (AIC)-informed model selection was used to identify the best-fitting model for each outcome across three working linear regression models. Although AMC variables had no significant effects on Receptive and Expressive Language subtest scores, highly involved familial AMC had a significant medium effect on Cognitive subtest score (β = 0.23, p < 0.01, semi-partial r = 0.28). Formal childcare had no effect on any outcome. This study provides preliminary evidence that there is a measurable connection between AMC and cognitive development in some populations and provides a methodological base from which to assess these connections cross-culturally through future studies. As these effects are attributable to AMC interactions with networks of mostly related individuals, these findings present an area for further investigation regarding the kin selection hypothesis for AMC.
... Even for children, life is shaped by a network of kinship relations and obligations, and by local Christian churches (Methodist and Assembly of God). Previous work has found striking similarities in the caregiver-infant interactions among mothers in Fiji and mothers in other sites (Broesch et al., 2016). Villagers engage primarily in a horticulture-fishing subsistence economy with a strongly-gendered division of labor, though many have worked in the tourist industry on occasion. ...
We examine the opportunities children have for interacting with others and the extent to which they are the focus of others’ visual attention in five societies where extended family communities are the norm. We compiled six video-recorded datasets (two from one society) collected by a team of anthropologists and psychologists conducting long-term research in each society. The six datasets include video observations of children among the Yasawas (Fiji), Tanna (Vanuatu), Tsimane (Bolivia), Huatasani (Peru), and Aka (infants and children 4–12 years old; Central African Republic). Each dataset consists of a series of videos of children ranging in age from 2 months to 12 years in their everyday contexts. We coded 998 videos and identified with whom children had opportunities to interact (male and female adults and children) as well as the number of individuals and the proportion of observed time that children spent with these individuals. We also examined the proportion of time children received direct visual gaze (indicating attention to the child). Our results indicate that children less than 5 years old spend the majority of their observed time in the presence of one female adult. This is the case across the five societies. In the three societies from which we have older children (Aka, Yasawa, Peru), we find a clear shift around 5 years of age, with children spending the majority of their time with other children. We also coded the presence or absence of a primary caregiver and found that caregivers remained within 2 ft of target children until 7 years of age. When they were in the company of a primary caregiver, children older than seven spent the majority of their time more than 2 ft from the caregiver. We found a consistent trend across societies with decreasing focal attention on the child with increasing child age. These findings show (1) remarkable consistency across these societies in children’s interaction opportunities and (2) that a developmental approach is needed to fully understand human development because the social context is dynamic across the lifespan. These data can serve as a springboard for future research examining social development in everyday contexts.
... A subsistence-based collective livelihood has been argued to produce a child rearing environment that is distinct from an urban, Western and independent lifestyle [25][26][27][28][29][30]. Closely examining child development in a drastically different environment, such as Tanna, offers insight into whether phenomena detected within North America and Europe are culture-bound or generalize beyond an urban, Western settings [31]. For example, is the propensity to infer the desires of another individual a trait shared by humans living in societies where mental states are likely less frequently discussed or used to guide behavior [32]? ...
We examined infant activity level and attention in 45 eight‐month‐old infants (mean age 8.8, SD = 2.07) living in two diverse socio‐cultural contexts: rural island societies in the South Pacific and urban Western societies in North America. Infants and mothers were observed for 10 minutes in a face‐to‐face interaction and later coded for the frequency of infants' motor movements and gaze shifts. Results indicate that infants in urban North American societies produced more frequent motor movements and gaze shifts compared to infants in rural, island societies in Oceania. We interpret these discrepancies as reflecting differences in social experience, ecological niches as well as physiological experiences. These findings highlight the complex interplay of development and experience early in life.
... However, if the cultural model is about the quiet and calm child, social smiles may pass by unnoticed. Along these lines, cross-cultural studies have shown that the development of both mutual gaze and social smiling are contingent on cultural beliefs and practices: Only if caregivers value mutual gaze and social smiling -as indexed by culture-specific contingency patterns (Kärtner et al., 2008(Kärtner et al., , 2010b or affect mirroring (Broesch et al., 2016;Wörmann et al., 2014Wörmann et al., , 2012) -will their infants show an increase in mutual gaze and smiling -an indicator of accentuated self-awareness -toward the end of the second month (Kärtner et al., 2010b;Wörmann et al., 2012Wörmann et al., , 2014. ...
From a developmental systems perspective, this chapter focuses on the question whether culture matters for children's early social-cognitive development. Based on a review of the current cross-cultural literature, we evaluate the current state of research on cross-cultural similarities and differences in major developmental milestones of early social cognition, namely (i) the development of self-awareness and an understanding of self and others as intentional agents, (ii) advanced forms of social learning and (iii) prosocial cognition and behavior. Overall, the current cross-cultural research suggests universality without uniformity: the common suite of social-cognitive skills emerges reliably and, at the same time, there are culture-specific accentuations of social-cognitive development across domains that mostly are in line with cultural values, beliefs and practices. By following different agendas when providing and structuring physical and social settings for their children, caregivers coherently organize infants' nascent intuitions, sentiments, and inclinations into increasingly coherent patterns of attention, appraisal, experience and behavior that are in line with cultural ideals and beliefs. By doing so, culturally informed social interaction sets the stage for culture-specific modulations of social cognition already in the first years of life.
... Mothers in many parts of SSA have been found to be highly responsive to infant fussing and crying and other signs of distress, often practice prolonged breastfeeding (i.e., breastfeeding beyond one year), and frequently carry babies on their body using wraps and slings [14,16,54,55]. ...
Refugees often parent under extreme circumstances. Parenting practices have implications for child outcomes, and parenting in the context of refugee resettlement is likely to be dynamic as parents negotiate a new culture. This study examined African origin mothers’ infant care values and practices related to feeding, carrying, and daily activities following resettlement in the Southeastern region of the U.S. Ten African origin mothers were asked about their infant care practices through semi-structured interviews. Results indicated that mothers valued breastfeeding but often chose to use formula as a supplement or instead of breastfeeding. In addition, participants valued carrying their infants close to the body but used equipment such as strollers. Mothers expressed that perceptions of American culture and rules, social support, interactions with community agencies, and the need to engage in formal employment were factors that influenced their infant care practices.
... More recent studies compared early mother-infant interaction in Cameroonian Nso farmer families-for whom the cultural expectation of a good child is a calm child (Keller & Otto, 2009)-and in German urban middle-class families-where the cultural expectation is of a child capable of expressing her own wishes and emotional states; although both Nso and German infants showed a similar sharp increase in awake alertness at 2 months, the Nso did not increase the duration of mother-infant mutual gaze and positive affect as the Germans did (Kärtner, Keller, & Yovsi, 2010;Wörmann, Holodynski, Kärtner, & Keller, 2012. Similar results were found with rural Fijian mothers responding less contingently to their infants' positive vocal bids than American upper-middle class mothers (Broesch, Rochat, Olah, Broesch, & Henrich, 2016). Also, Hindu Indian mothers and their infants in Gujarat displayed low levels of positive emotional expressiveness in interactional situation since open display of emotions is regarded as culturally inappropriate (Abels et al., 2005). ...
Studies conducted in Western countries document the special role of mother-infant face-to-face exchanges for early emotional development including social smiling. A few cross-cultural studies have shown that the Western pattern of face-to-face communication is absent in traditional rural cultures, without identifying other processes that promote emotional Co-regulation. The present study compared three different samples: Western middle-class families in Italy, rural traditional Nso farmer families in Cameroon, and West African sub-Saharan immigrant families in Italy using biweekly observations of 20 mother-infant dyads from each cultural context from age 4 to 12 weeks. Longitudinal sequential analysis of maternal and infant behaviors showed that from as early as 4 weeks, in Italian dyads maternal affectionate talking is linked with infant active attention to mother in sequences of face-to-face contact; this link fosters the subsequent emergence of infant smiling/cooing, and then sequences of positive feedback between infant and maternal emotional expressions that, by the 3rd month, dynamically stabilize. In contrast, for Cameroonian/Nso dyads over the 2nd and 3rd month, maternal motor stimulation marked by rhythmic vocalizing is linked with infant active attention to surroundings. The relatively few smiling/cooing actions of Nso babies at their mothers were answered mainly with tactile stimulation that did not foster the maintenance of face-to-face visual contact. Finally, West African immigrant dyads showed a combination of both face-to-face and sensorimotor coregulated exchanges observed in their new and native cultures. These findings suggest that emotional Co-regulation in early infancy can occur via multiple, culture-specific pathways that may be substantially different from the western pattern of face-to-face communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
... Admittedly, caution is also needed when drawing general conclusions about the role of learning and innate factors in supporting the gaze-following responses of 5-to 7-month-olds. At least some infant experiences remain similar across cultural contexts (Broesch, Rochat, Olah, Broesch, & Henrich, 2016) and minimal exposure to communicative gaze may be one of them. Proximal parenting style implies relatively lower frequency of face-to-face contact, but does not preclude infant exposure to communicative gaze signals altogether (Kärtner et al., 2010;Little et al., 2016). ...
Gaze is considered a crucial component of early communication between an infant and her caregiver. When communicatively addressed infants respond aptly to others’ gaze by following its direction. However, experience with face‐to‐face contact varies across cultures, begging the question whether infants’ competencies in receiving others’ communicative gaze‐signals are universal or culturally specific. We used eye‐tracking to assess gaze‐following responses of 5‐ to 7‐month olds in Vanuatu, where face‐to‐face parent‐infant interactions are less prevalent than in Western populations. We found that – just like Western 6‐month‐olds studied previously – 5‐ to ‐7‐month‐olds living in Vanuatu followed gaze only, when communicatively addressed. That is, if presented gaze‐shifts were preceded by infant‐directed speech, but not if they were preceded by adult‐directed speech. These results are consistent with the notion that early infant gaze‐following is tied to infants’ early emerging communicative competencies and rooted in universal mechanisms rather than dependent on cultural specificities of early socialization.
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... We suggest that evolutionary theory has impacted developmental psychology even more strongly than Bjorklund suggests. Many of the most influential recent programs of research in the field of developmental psychology, cognitive and otherwise, take an evolutionary approach to understanding the ontogeny of cognition and behavior (as just a few recent examples: Barrett et al., 2013;Blake et al., 2015;Broesch, Rochat, Olah, Broesch, & Henrich, 2016;Clay & Tennie, 2017;Gopnik et al., 2017;Hamlin, 2014;Henrich, 2015a;Heyes, in press;House et al., 2013;Nielsen & Haun, 2016;Rosati & Warneken, 2016;Santos & Rosati, 2015;van Leeuwen, Call, & Haun, 2014;Warneken & Tomasello, 2017;Wertz & Wynn, 2014). Additional evidence of impact can be found in recent programs at major conferences in the field. ...
... A subsistence-based collective livelihood has been argued to produce a child rearing environment that is distinct from an urban, Western and independent lifestyle [25][26][27][28][29][30]. Closely examining child development in a drastically different environment, such as Tanna, offers insight into whether phenomena detected within North America and Europe are culture-bound or generalize beyond an urban, Western settings [31]. For example, is the propensity to infer the desires of another individual a trait shared by humans living in societies where mental states are likely less frequently discussed or used to guide behavior [32]? ...
Humans are unique in their propensity for helping. Not only do we help others in need by reacting to their requests, we also help proactively by assisting in the absence of a request. Proactive helping requires the actor to detect the need for help, recognize the intention of the other, and remedy the situation. Very little is known about the development of this social phenomenon beyond an urban, industrialized setting. We examined helping in nineteen two- to five-year old children in small-scale rural villages of Vanuatu. In the experimental condition, the intentions of the experimenter were made salient, whereas in the control condition they were ambiguous. Children helped more often in the experimental compared to the control condition, suggesting that the propensity to monitor others’ goals and act accordingly can be detected in different cultural contexts.
... Substantial quantitative and qualitative variation exists in teaching both within (88) and among (89) populations. For example, in different populations, caregivers respond differently to infants' emotional displays (90), speak to and structure their infants' social interactions and expectations in distinct ways (74,91), and display variability in the modalities (e.g., physical, visual, vocal) used to transmit information to infants (92,93). ...
The complexity and variability of human culture is unmatched by any other species. Humans live in culturally-constructed niches filled with artifacts, skills, beliefs, and practices that have been inherited, accumulated, and modified over generations. A causal account of the complexity of human culture must explain its distinguishing characteristics: it is cumulative and highly variable within and across populations. I propose that the psychological adaptations supporting cumulative cultural transmission are universal, but sufficiently flexible to support the acquisition of highly variable behavioral repertoires. This paper describes variation in the transmission practices (teaching) and acquisition strategies (imitation) that support cumulative cultural learning in childhood. Examining flexibility and variation in caregiver socialization and children’s learning extends our understanding of evolution in living systems by providing insight into the psychological foundations of cumulative cultural transmission – the cornerstone of human cultural diversity.
Caregiver-infant interactions in Western middle class often take place in dyadic play settings, engaged in infant-initiated object stimulation, and surrounded by a positive emotional tone, reflecting a distal parenting style. With this study we aim to investigate whether the same conception of caregiver-infant interaction is embodied in the proximal parenting style. For this purpose, we compare the context and pattern of caregiver-infant interactions in two cultural groups in Costa Rica: Urban middle-class families in San José and rural indigenous Bribri families. Naturalistic observations and caregiver interviews revealed significant differences between the groups, with San José families resembling the Western middle-class interaction pattern. Among the Bribris, adult-child play is uncommon so that children interact with adults in primary care settings and with older siblings in play settings. Bribri interactions are further characterized by emotional neutrality. The groups did not differ in terms of body contact. Also, caregivers in both samples took the lead in interactions more often than infants. The results are discussed in the context of an autonomous-relational style as combining psychological autonomy and hierarchical relatedness. We argue that early childhood theories and intervention programs need to abandon the assumption that Western middle-class strategies are universal and recognize locally relevant patterns of caregiver-infant interaction.
When interacting with infants, humans often alter their speech and song in ways thought to support communication. Theories of human child-rearing, informed by data on vocal signalling across species, predict that such alterations should appear globally. Here, we show acoustic differences between infant-directed and adult-directed vocalizations across cultures. We collected 1,615 recordings of infant- and adult-directed speech and song produced by 410 people in 21 urban, rural and small-scale societies. Infant-directedness was reliably classified from acoustic features only, with acoustic profiles of infant-directedness differing across language and music but in consistent fashions. We then studied listener sensitivity to these acoustic features. We played the recordings to 51,065 people from 187 countries, recruited via an English-language website, who guessed whether each vocalization was infant-directed. Their intuitions were more accurate than chance, predictable in part by common sets of acoustic features and robust to the effects of linguistic relatedness between vocalizer and listener. These findings inform hypotheses of the psychological functions and evolution of human communication.
Literature on infant emotion is dominated by research conducted in Western, industrialized societies where early socialization is characterized by face-to-face, vocal communication with caregivers. There is a dearth of knowledge of infant emotion in the context of social interaction outside of the visual and vocal modalities. In a three-population cross-cultural comparison, we used the still-face task to measure variation in behavior among infants from proximal care (practicing high levels of physical contact) communities in Bolivia and distal care (emphasizing vocal and visual interaction) communities in the U.S. and Fiji. In a modified version of the face-to-face still-face (FFSF), Study 1, infants in the U.S. and Fiji displayed the typical behavioral response to the still-face episode: increased negative affect and decreased social engagement, whereas infants in Bolivia showed no change. For tactile behavior, infants in Bolivia showed an increase in tactile self-stimulation from the interaction episode to the still-face episode, whereas U.S. infants showed no change. In Study 2, we created a novel body-to-body version of the still-face paradigm (“still-body”) with infants in US and Bolivia, to mimic the near-constant physical contact Bolivian infants experience. The U.S. and Bolivian infant response was similar to Study 1: US infants showed decreased positive affect and increased negative affect and decreased social engagement from the interaction to the still-body episode and Bolivian infants showed no change. Notably, there were overall differences in infant behaviors between the two paradigms (FFSF and Still-Body). Infants in Bolivia and the U.S. showed increased positive facial affect during the FFSF paradigm in comparison with the Still-Body paradigm. Our results demonstrate the need for more globally representative developmental research and a broader approach to infant emotion and communication.
The belief that breastfeeding promotes maternal bonding is widely held by both the public and professional health organizations. Yet to our knowledge, all research examining the link between breastfeeding and maternal behavior in humans has been correlational, limiting our ability to draw causal conclusions. In many mammals, the hormone prolactin, which is central to milk production, rises in response to each breastfeeding session and promotes maternal sensitivity, yet there is a dearth of research in human mothers. To fill these research gaps, we randomly assigned 28 breastfeeding mothers to either breastfeed in the lab or feed their infants previously expressed breastmilk in a bottle before participating in a video-recorded free play session with their infant. Plasma prolactin was measured 40 min after the start of the feeding session and video observations were coded for maternal sensitivity. We found that women randomly assigned to breastfeed were more sensitive to infant cues than women randomly assigned to bottle-feed. Prolactin levels did not differ between feeding groups, although prolactin was positively correlated with maternal sensitivity. Our results suggest that feeding milk directly from the breast (compared to bottle-feeding) increases maternal sensitivity towards infants, at least in the short term.
Seven typical developmental steps are described as cardinal changes leading children from implicit embodied self‐awareness at birth, self‐consciousness by 2 years, and the adoption of an ethical stance toward others by the preschool years (3–5y). This development may be a useful benchmark for clinicians. In this review, some clinical pointers are outlined in relation to each developmental step, but with a particular focus on the testing of self‐awareness in children with developmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, and intellectual disability.
What this paper adds
• There are seven major steps in early self and social awareness.
• Clinical pointers related to each of the seven steps are provided.
This chapter considers the cross‐cultural applicability of some of the most popular content addressed in undergraduate developmental psychology and reviews research that has revealed similarities and differences across cultures. The study of children's thinking traces its origins and inspiration to the pioneering research and prolific writings of Jean Piaget. Cross‐cultural investigations indicate that in some respects, Piaget was correct in his depiction of cognitive growth. His perspective has been enormously influential, but the modern study of cognitive development has shown Piaget's stage portrayal to be inaccurate and insufficient in accounting for the full range of transformations in children's cognition. Cultural practices not only provide opportunities to support and maintain desired patterns of learning, but also impose constraints on cognitive growth. As a result, culture and cognition are inextricably interlinked. The development of three cognitive processes—attention, autobiographical memory, and theory of mind—serves as illustrations of cultural influences.
Power in Close Relationships - edited by Christopher R. Agnew February 2019
Humans are unique in their propensity to intentionally instruct and subsequently learn a wide range of information from others. We investigated when and how young children become socially resourceful in using others’ expertise, and whether the early propensity to request for help varies across diverse societies. We tested and compared 44 two- to four-year-old children growing up in urban United States and Japan, and rural Canada. Children were faced with two experimenters who demonstrated different abilities (successful vs. unsuccessful) in a toy retrieving task. We measured children’s propensity to request for help and the relative selectivity of requests to one experimenter over another. Results show significant cross-cultural differences. U.S. children’s request behavior differed significantly from the other two societies on three of the four measures. Specifically, U.S. children requested more overall, whereas Japanese children ceased manipulation (“give up”), and Canadian children continued to try on their own. Only the U.S. children show clear selective requests to the successful experimenter. On the last measure (gaze behavior), the U.S. and Canadian children look more to the successful model during the test phase than the unsuccessful model. These findings have implications for social learning research as well as the generalizability of developmental science.
Emotion competence, particularly as manifested within social interaction (i.e., affective social competence) is an important contributor to children's optimal social and psychological functioning. In this article we highlight advances in understanding three processes involved in affective social competence: a) experiencing emotions, b) effectively communicating one's emotions, and c) understanding others’ emotions. Experiencing emotion is increasingly understood to include becoming aware of, accepting, and managing one's emotions. Effective communication of emotion involves multimodal signaling rather than reliance on a single modality such as facial expressions. Emotion understanding includes both recognizing others’ emotion signals and inferring probable causes and consequences of their emotions. Parents play an important role in modeling and teaching children all three of these skills, and interventions are available to aid in their development.
Developmental research has the potential to address some of the critical gaps in our scientific understanding of the role played by cultural learning in ontogenetic outcomes. The goal of this special section was to gather together leading examples of research on cultural learning across a variety of social contexts and caregiving settings. Although the field of developmental psychology continues to struggle with the persistent problem of oversampling U.S. and Western European populations, we argue that the articles in this special section add to the growing evidence that children everywhere draw on a repertoire of cultural learning strategies that optimize their acquisition of the specific practices, beliefs, and values of their communities. We also identify future directions and outline best practices for the conduct of research on cultural learning.
Mother-infant vocal interactions serve multiple functions in child development, but it remains unclear whether key features of these interactions are community-common or community-specific. We examined rates, interrelations, and contingencies of vocal interactions in 684 mothers and their 5½-month-old infants in diverse communities in 11 countries (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, and the United States). Rates of mothers' and infants' vocalizations varied widely across communities and were uncorrelated. However, collapsing the data across communities, we found that mothers' vocalizations to infants were contingent on the offset of the infants' nondistress vocalizing, infants' vocalizations were contingent on the offset of their mothers' vocalizing, and maternal and infant contingencies were significantly correlated. These findings point to the beginnings of dyadic conversational turn taking. Despite broad differences in the overall talkativeness of mothers and infants, maternal and infant contingent vocal responsiveness is found across communities, supporting essential functions of turn taking in early-childhood socialization.
© The Author(s) 2015.
When speaking to infants, adults typically alter the acoustic properties of their speech in a variety of ways compared with how they speak to other adults; for example, they use higher pitch, increased pitch range, more pitch variability, and slower speech rate. Research shows that these vocal changes happen similarly across industrialized populations, but no studies have carefully examined basic acoustic properties of infant-directed (ID) speech in traditional societies. Moreover, some scholars have suggested that ID speech is culturally specific and does not exist in some small-scale societies. We examined fundamental frequency (F0) production and speech rate in mothers speaking to both infants and adults in three cultures: Fijians, Kenyans, and North Americans. In all three cultures, speakers used higher F0 when speaking to infants relative to when speaking to other adults, and they also used significantly greater F0 variation and fewer syllables per second. Previous research has found that American mothers tend to use higher pitch than do mothers from other cultures, but when maternal education was controlled in the current study, we did not find a significant difference in average pitch across our three populations. This is the first research systematically comparing spontaneous ID and adult-directed speech prosody between Western and traditional societies, and it is consistent with a large body of evidence showing similar acoustic patterns in ID speech across industrialized populations.
Objective. 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.
Among the Western intelligentsia, parenting is synonymous with teaching. We are cajoled into beginning our child's education in the womb and feel guilty whenever a 'teaching moment' is squandered. This paper will argue that this reliance on teaching generally, and especially on parents as teachers, is quite recent historically and localised culturally. The majority follow a laissez faire attitude towards development that relies heavily on children's natural curiosity and motivation to emulate those who are more expert.
Two separate studies examined the following hypotheses: (1) that maternal responsiveness is affected by cross-cultural differences in conventions of conversational interaction and (2) that maternal responsiveness is affected by intracultural differences in mothers' levels of formal education. The 1st study compared mother–infant interactions among the Gusii of Kenya with those in suburban Boston, Massachusetts. The 2nd study, carried out in the Mexican city of Cuernavaca, examined variations in mother–infant interactions by maternal schooling within a local sample of low-income mothers of similar cultural backgrounds who had attended school from 1 to 9 yrs. The 2 studies together indicate that maternal responsiveness during infancy, particularly in the verbal mode, is influenced by the mother's cultural background and school attendance (i.e., by factors that reflect her history of participation in institutionalized systems of communication and education). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This prospective study contributes to the understanding of the development of self-conceptions in cultural context. We examined the influence of maternal contingent responsiveness towards their 3-month-old infants on toddlers' self-recognition at the age of 18 to 20 months. We contrasted two samples that can be expected to differ with respect to contingent responsiveness as a parenting style: German middle-class families and Cameroonian Nso farmers. As hypothesized, German mothers reacted more contingently than Nso mothers. Furthermore, German toddlers recognized themselves more often than Nso toddlers. Finally, we found that the level of contingent responsiveness was one of the mechanisms that accounted for mirror self-recognition. The results are discussed with respect to different cultural emphases on parenting strategies.
We focus our review on three universal tasks of human development: relationship formation, knowledge acquisition, and the balance between autonomy and relatedness at adolescence. We present evidence that each task can be addressed through two deeply different cultural pathways through development: the pathways of independence and interdependence. Whereas core theories in developmental psychology are universalistic in their intentions, they in fact presuppose the independent pathway of development. Because the independent pathway is therefore well-known in psychology, we focus a large part of our review on empirically documenting the alternative, interdependent pathway for each developmental task. We also present three theoretical approaches to culture and development: the ecocultural, the sociohistorical, and the cultural values approach. We argue that an understanding of cultural pathways through human development requires all three approaches. We review evidence linking values (cultural values approach), ecological conditions (ecocultural approach), and socialization practices (sociohistorical approach) to cultural pathways through universal developmental tasks.
This prospective study contributes to the understanding of the development of self-conceptions in cultural context. We examined the influence of maternal contingent responsiveness towards their 3-month-old infants on toddlers’ self-recognition at the age of 18 to 20 months. We contrasted two samples that can be expected to differ with respect to contingent responsiveness as a parenting style: German middle-class families and Cameroonian Nso farmers. As hypothesized, German mothers reacted more contingently than Nso mothers. Furthermore, German toddlers recognized themselves more often than Nso toddlers. Finally, we found that the level of contingent responsiveness was one of the mechanisms that accounted for mirror self-recognition. The results are discussed with respect to different cultural emphases on parenting strategies.
Presents a summary of research findings that suggests that the qualitative nature of 1-yr-olds' attachment to their mothers is related both to earlier mother–infant interaction and to various aspects of their later development. The way in which they organize their behavior toward their mothers affects the way in which they organize their behavior toward other aspects of their environment, both animate and inanimate. This organization provides a core of continuity in development despite changes that come with cognitive and socioemotional developmental acquisitions. Despite the need for further research into children's attachment to their parents and to other figures, findings to date provide relevant leads for policies, education in parenting, and intervention procedures to further the welfare of infants and young children. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined similarities and differences in mothers’ and infants’ activities and interactions among 37 Japanese American and 40 South American dyads. Few relations between maternal acculturation level or individualism/collectivism and maternal parenting or infant behaviours emerged in either group. However, group differences were found in mothers’ and infants’ behaviours indicating that culture-of-origin continues to influence parenting behaviour in acculturating groups.
In this study, the early social experiences of infants from a rural, traditionally agricultural community are compared with those of urban infants of the same region. Using spot observations, infants'daily social experiences were assessed when they were about 3 months of age. Based on overarching sociocultural orientations, the authors expected rural and urban caregivers to provide their infants with the same amount of body contact, kissing, and body stimulation. Based on different educational profiles of the caregivers, less eyetoeye contact, exclusive attention, and object stimulation by rural compared to urban caregivers were expected. Differences between mothers and other caregivers in their interaction with the infant and during distress and nondistress waking states of the infant were explored. The results confirmed their expectations partially. Urban infants experienced more eye-to-eye contact and more exclusive attention but also more body contact. There were no differences in kissing, body stimulation, and object stimulation.
This longitudinal study evaluated prediction and coherence in cultural (acculturation, individualism, collectivism) and parenting cognitions (attributions, self-perceptions, knowledge) in 86 Japanese American and South American acculturating mothers. Mothers' cultural cognitions when their infants were 5 months old predicted some parenting cognitions 15 months later, particularly among Japanese American mothers. Coherence among mothers' attributions obtained in both cultural groups when their infants were both 5 and 20 months of age and among Japanese American mothers' self-perceptions of parenting at both time periods. Although a few relations across types of parenting cognitions were found, domains of parenting cognitions were relatively independent. This study provides insight into the nature and structure of cultural and parenting cognitions in two U.S. acculturating groups.
Face-to-face interaction between 26 infants and (a) their mothers and (b) a relatively unfamiliar figure was observed longitudinally between 6 and 15 weeks of age in the home environment. Highlights of normative findings are that infants became more responsive over this time period, whereas maternal behavior did not change. In the sample as a whole, infants were more responsive to the mother than to the unfamiliar figure on only 1 measure, bouncing. Individual differences in maternal behavior were stable throughout, but individual differences in infant behavior were not. Individual differences in interaction were analyzed and summarized by means of a factor analysis. Factor I opposed positive infant responsiveness to minimal response and maternal playfulness to impassiveness. Factor II contrasted maternal contingent pacing, infant delight, and prolonged interaction with routine maternal manner, abruptness, negative infant response, and brief interaction. Individual differences in interaction were found to be related to later differences in infant-mother attachment, as assessed by a strange-situation procedure at 51 weeks of age. Infants later identified as securely attached were more responsive in early en face encounters than infants judged to be anxiously attached, and their mothers were more contingently responsive and encouraging of interaction. Infants later identified as anxiously attached were more unresponsive and negative in early en face interaction than securely attached infants, and their mothers were more likely to be impassive or abrupt. Securely attached infants were more positively responsive to the mother than to an unfamiliar figure in early face-to-face episodes, while anxiously attached infants were not.
The social responses of 48 7- and 10-month-old infants were analysed and compared in the context of dyadic and triadic situations. In the dyadic situation, infants' reactions to a sudden 1 min still face adopted by a social partner in a face-to-face interaction were recorded. In the triadic situation, infants' monitoring of a social partner in various situations of object exploration was recorded. Results indicated that specié c responses in a dyadic context correlate with responses expressed by the infant in a triadic context. At either age, infants that demonstrated attempts to re-engage the experimenter during the still-face episode in the dyadic situation were also those who manifested the most signs of joint engagement, attention following and attention monitoring in the triadic situation. These é ndings are interpreted as the demonstra- tion of a developmental link between dyadic and triadic social competence in infancy.
In this article, I briefly survey the ethnographic research literature on childhood in the 20th century, beginning with the social and intellectual contexts for discussions of childhood at the turn of the 20th century. The observations of Bronislaw Malinowski and Margaret Mead in the 1920s were followed by later ethnographers, also describing childhood, some of whom criticized developmental theories; still others were influenced initially by Freudian and other psychoanalytic theories and later by the suggestions of Edward Sapir for research on the child's acquisition of culture. The Six Cultures Study led by John Whiting at midcentury was followed by diverse trends of the period after 1960—including field studies of infancy, the social and cultural ecology of children's activities, and language socialization. Ethnographic evidence on hunting and gathering and agricultural peoples was interpreted in evolutionary as well as cultural and psychological terms. The relationship between ethnography and developmental psychology remained problematic. (Keywords: history, ethnography, child development, cultural acquisition, interpersonal relationships) I
This study examines the relation between cultural beliefs and values on the one hand and the organization of communication between caregivers and young children on the other. The study compares caregiver-child verbal interaction in two different communities, rural Western Samoa and Anglo middle class, with an emphasis on the former. It illustrates ways in which organization of turn-taking and procedures for clarification and interpretation are linked to beliefs and expectations concerning the nature of children and the social organization of caregiving. (Language acquisition, socialization, input, communicative competence, Oceania.)
A short-term longitudinal study with 4- and 5-month-old infants investigated whether infants’ prior experience with contingency or noncontingency in social interactions with specific others affects infants’ preference for these others in subsequent interactions. On Session 1 infants were simultaneously presented with social interaction from two strangers via video, one was interacting contingently and one was interacting noncontingently (a replay of the stranger interacting with another infant). On Session 2 six days later, the same two strangers were simultaneously presented to the infant again; this time both interacted contingently. The infants attended more to the contingent stranger on Session 1 and to this same stranger on Session 2. The results indicate that infants prefer to attend to people who have been responsive to them in the past compared to those who have not and that 4- and 5-month-olds can maintain expectations for responsiveness based on previous encounters for at least six days.
The raising of children, their role in society, and the degree to which family and community is structured around them, varies quite significantly around the world. The Anthropology of Childhood provides the first comprehensive review of the literature on children from a distinctly anthropological perspective. Bringing together key evidence from cultural anthropology, history, and primate studies, it argues that our common understandings about children are narrowly culture-bound. Whereas the dominant society views children as precious, innocent and preternaturally cute ‘cherubs’, Lancy introduces the reader to societies where children are viewed as unwanted, inconvenient ‘changelings’, or as desired but pragmatically commoditized ‘chattel’. Looking in particular at family structure and reproduction, profiles of children’s caretakers, their treatment at different ages, their play, work, schooling, and transition to adulthood, this volume provides a rich, interesting, and original portrait of children in past and contemporary cultures. Jargon free, politically balanced, this is a must-read for anyone interested in childhood.
Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior in the world's top journals based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Researchers - often implicitly - assume that either there is little variation across human populations, or that these "standard subjects" are as representative of the species as any other population. Are these assumptions justified? Here, our review of the comparative database from across the behavioral sciences suggests both that there is substantial variability in experimental results across populations and that WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual compared with the rest of the species - frequent outliers. The domains reviewed include visual perception, fairness, cooperation, spatial reasoning, categorization and inferential induction, moral reasoning, reasoning styles, self-concepts and related motivations, and the heritability of IQ. The findings suggest that members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans. Many of these findings involve domains that are associated with fundamental aspects of psychology, motivation, and behavior - hence, there are no obvious a priori grounds for claiming that a particular behavioral phenomenon is universal based on sampling from a single subpopulation. Overall, these empirical patterns suggests that we need to be less cavalier in addressing questions of human nature on the basis of data drawn from this particularly thin, and rather unusual, slice of humanity. We close by proposing ways to structurally re-organize the behavioral sciences to best tackle these challenges.
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.
The pattern of crying and fretting behavior during the first two years is described for 46 !Kung San infants from a hunter-gatherer society in northwestern Botswana. Despite markedly different caretaking practices predisposing to quieter infants, crying and fretting were significantly greater during the first three months, and a peak pattern was present. Measurement of crying 'intensity' indicated that it was predominantly short and fretful. The results support the concept that the early peak pattern is not specific to infants in western industrialized societies, and may represent a behavior universal to the human species. The caretaking differences between societies primarily appear to affect crying duration rather than its frequency and pattern in early infancy.
This naturalistic, longitudinal study of 26 infant-mother pairs shows that consistency and promptness of maternal response is associated with decline in frequency and duration of infant crying. By the end of the first year individual differences in crying reflect the history of maternal responsiveness rather than constitutional differences in infant irritability. Close physical contact is the most frequent maternal intervention and the most effective in terminating crying. Nevertheless, maternal effectiveness in terminating crying was found to be less powerful than promptness of response in reducing crying in subsequent months. Evidence suggests that whereas crying is expressive at first, it can later be a mode of communication directed specifically toward the mother. The development of noncrying modes of communication, as well as a decline in crying, is associated with maternal responsiveness to infant signals. The findings are discussed in an evolutionary context, and with reference to the popular belief that to respond to his cries "spoils" a baby.
Emotion regulation and quality of attachment are closely linked. It has been proposed here that one influence on individual differences in emotion regulation may be a child's attachment history. Individuals characterized by the flexible ability to accept and integrate both positive and negative emotions are generally securely attached; on the other hand, individuals characterized by either limited or heightened negative affect are more likely to be insecurely attached. While acknowledging the role of infant temperament, I have focused on the role of social factors in examining the link between emotion regulation and attachment. The approach to emotion regulation taken here--that emotion regulation is adaptive in helping a child attain her goals--is esentially a functionalist approach (Bretherton et al., 1986; Campos et al., 1983), consistent with earlier views of emotions as important regulators of interpersonal relationships (Charlesworth, 1982; Izard, 1977). It has been proposed that patterns of emotion regulation serve an important function for the infant: the function of maintaining the relationship with the attachment figure. Emotion regulation has been described as serving this function in two ways. First, the function of maintaining the relationship is thought to be served when infant emotion regulation contributes to the infant's more generalized regulation of the attachment system in response to experiences with the caregiver. Infants who have experienced rejection (insecure/avoidant infants) are thought to minimize negative affect in order to avoid the risk of further rejection. Infants whose mothers have been relatively unavailable or inconsistently available (insecure/ambivalent infants) are thought to maximize negative affect in order to increase the likelihood of gaining the attention of a frequently unavailable caregiver. Both these patterns of emotion regulation help ensure that the child will remain close to the parent and thereby be protected. Second, the function of maintaining the attachment relationship is thought to be served when the infant signals to the parent that she will cooperate in helping maintain the parent's own state of mind in relation to attachment. The minimizing of negative affect of the avoidant infant signals that the infant will not seek caregiving that would interfere with the parent's dismissal of attachment. The heightened negative emotionality of the ambivalent infant signals to the parent that the infant needs her and thus helps maintain a state of mind in which attachment is emphasized. The approach to emotion regulation presented here is congruent with much work examining the socialization of emotions (Lewis & Saarni, 1985; Thompson, 1990).
Cultural variation occurred in time-sharing of attention during videotaped home visits with sixteen 14-20-month-old toddlers and their caregivers from a Guatemalan Mayan community and a middle-class community of U.S. European-descent families. The Mayan caregivers and their toddlers were more likely to attend simultaneously to spontaneously occurring competing events than were the U.S. caregivers and their toddlers, who were more likely to alternate their attention between competing events and, in the case of the caregivers. to focus attention on one event at a time. This cultural contrast in prevalence of simultaneous or nonsimultaneous attention occurred in both a 10-min segment of child-focused activities and a 10-min segment of adult-focused activities, replicating and extending the findings of B. Rogoff, J. Mistry, A. Göncü, and C. Mosier (1993), which implicated cultural processes in attention.
A large body of literature documents the adverse effects of maternal depression on the functioning and development of offspring. Although investigators have identified factors associated with risk for abnormal development and psychopathology in the children, little attention has been paid to the mechanisms explaining the transmission of risk from the mothers to the children. Moreover, no existing model both guides understanding of the various processes' interrelatedness and considers the role of development in explicating the manifestation of risk in the children. This article proposes a developmentally sensitive, integrative model for understanding children's risk in relation to maternal depression. Four mechanisms through which risk might be transmitted are evaluated: (a) heritability of depression; (b) innate dysfunctional neuroregulatory mechanisms; (c) exposure to negative maternal cognitions, behaviors, and affect; and (d) the stressful context of the children's lives. Three factors that might moderate this risk are considered: (a) the father's health and involvement with the child, (b) the course and timing of the mother's depression, and (c) characteristics of the child. Relevant issues are discussed, and promising directions for future research are suggested.
Culture and early interactions
- S. Dixon
- E. Z. Tronick
- C. H. Keefer
- T. B. Brazelton
Hunter-gatherer childhoods: Evolutionary, developmental and cultural perspectives
- M. Konner
Childcare and culture
- R. LeVine
A cross-cultural comparison of the development of the social smile: A longitudinal study of maternal and infant imitation in 6- and 12-week-old infants
- Wörmann
Early social cognition
- G. Gergely
- J. S. Watson
Affect regulation, mentalization, and the development of the self
- P. Fonagy
- G. Gergely
- E. L. Jurist
- M. Target
Learning display rules: The socialization of emotion expression in infancy
- Malatesta
- LeVine
- LeVine