1. Parenting in Cross-Cultural Perspective: The United States, France, and Japan.
- Author
-
Bornstein, Marc H.
- Abstract
In this study of prominent characteristics of parenting in the United States, France, and Japan, 72 mother-infant dyads were examined. The study focused on three prominent interactive domains of visual and vocal exchange between mother and baby (nurturing, social exchange, and didactic stimulation), examining their frequency of occurrence and patterns of covariation. Findings revealed significant main effects of culture, with American mothers showing significantly higher rates of object stimulation than French or Japanese mothers. American and Japanese mothers showed equal rates of social stimulation, while American mothers engaged in more social stimulation than French mothers. Maternal behaviors appeared to be largely independent of coherence among parenting behaviors. The data indicated that mothers from the different cultures differed most in the degree to which they stimulated, spoke to, and responded to their infants vis-a-vis the object and social worlds. Mothers were most similar in terms of the degree to which they engaged their infants in tactile kinesthetic play and responded in a nurturing or an imitative manner. (Contains 5 pages of references.) (SH)
- Published
- 1991