Child‐rearing practices of urban poor mothers of infants and three‐year‐olds in five cultures

Abstract

Personal interviews with low-income low education urban mothers in five culture groups--from Korea India Sweden France and the USA--resulted in a profile of behaviors that mothers report using in response to varieties of child behaviors at one year and three years of age. Mothers in the different cultures had some behaviors more typical of their culture groups such as scheduling and preventive actions of French mothers and physical punishment by Black USA mothers and more laissez-faire non-interference and acceptance of child actions by Swedish mothers. Mothers tended to respond to positive child behaviors overwhelmingly positively regardless of child age or of culture group. They responded overwhelmingly with negative behaviors to undesired or negative child behaviors. Some behaviors called forth a wider maternal repertoire particularly for autonomous or immature behaviors that mothers seemed uncertain how to handle. Across culture groups mothers responded in general more typically than uniquely as a function of their culture group. (authors)