Search

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., Competing Interests: Declarations of interest None., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This article examines the parent intervention program evaluated by Weber et al. (2017) and argues that there are scientific and ethical problems with such intervention efforts in applied developmental science. Scientifically, these programs rely on data from a small and narrow sample of the world's population; assume the existence of fixed developmental pathways; and pit scientific knowledge against indigenous knowledge. The authors question the critical role of talk as solely providing the rich cognitive stimulation important to school success, and the critical role of primary caregivers as teachers of children's verbal competency. Ethically, these programs do not sufficiently explore how an intervention in one aspect of child care will affect the community's culturally organized patterns of child care., (© 2018 Society for Research in Child Development.)

This article provides an analytical review on the issue of parenting, which describes the main local and international research related to two major issues in developmental psychology in the Costa Rican context: the goals and practices of parenting within Costa Rican culture and the main results that characterize the predominant styles of mother-infant interaction. Based on research evidence from the past 30+ years, research developed by the author, and from the socio-cultural construct of orientation to interrelatedness and independence, main issues within cultural and cross-cultural studies on the subject are discussed from a perspective of cultural developmental psychology. Based on a review and critique of traditional, theoretical approaches in cross-cultural psychology applied to development, their applicability, scope, and relevance in studies of interaction styles and parental socialization goals are analyzed. The development of a culturally sensitive approach on developmental psychology is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This study analyzes culturally formed parenting styles during the fancy, 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, 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. Conclusion Infants participate, from birth on, in sociocultural activities that are committed to cultural goats and values which inform parenting behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]