Cultural Differences in Maternal Beliefs and Behaviors: A Study of Middle-Class Anglo and Puerto Rican Mother-Infant Pairs in Four Everyday Situations

• Published in: Child development Vol. 70; no. 4; pp. 1005 - 1016
• Main Authors: Harwood, Robin L., Schoelmerich, Axel, Schulze, Pamela A., Gonzalez, Zenaida
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, USA and Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishers Inc 01.07.1999; Blackwell Publishers; Blackwell; University of Chicago Press for the Society for Research in Child Development, etc; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adult; Affection; Anglo-American people; Behaviour; Beliefs; Biological and medical sciences; Child development; Child Rearing; Children; Cognition - physiology; Comparison; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Cultural Differences; Cultural groups; Culture; Culture and Environment; Daily Routines; Developmental psychology; England - ethnology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Games; Goals; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Individualism; Infant; Infants; Interviews; Male; Maternal Behavior - psychology; Mother-Child Relations; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; Newborn. Infant; Observation; Parent Attitudes; Parent Child Relationship; Parenting; Parents; Parents as Teachers; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Puerto Rican people; Puerto Rico; Social Class; Social interaction; Socialization; Sociocentrism; United States; USA; White people; England; United States; Puerto Rico; Human; Belief; Social environment; Maternal behavior; Crosscultural study; Social interaction; Cultural environment; Infant; Mother child relation; Caucasoid; Latinamerican; Ethnic group
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.00073

This study examines cultural patterning in situational variability in mother-infant interactions among middle-class Anglo and Puerto Rican mothers and their 12 to 15-month-old firstborn children. Forty mothers were interviewed regarding their long-term socialization goals and childrearing strategies, and videotaped interacting with their infants in four everyday settings: feeding, social play, teaching, and free play. Results suggest that: (1) Anglo mothers place greater emphasis on socialization goals and childrearing strategies consonant with a more individualistic orientation, whereas Puerto Rican mothers place greater focus on goals and strategies consistent with a more sociocentric orientation; (2) coherence was found between mothers' childrearing beliefs and practices, with Puerto Rican mothers more likely to directly structure their infants' behaviors; and (3) situational variability arose in mother-infant interactions, but this variability showed a cultural patterning consistent with mothers' long-term socialization goals and childrearing beliefs.