Contextual variation in young children's acquisition of social-emotional skills.

Dana C Mccoy,Jorge Cuartas,Günther Fink,Marcus Waldman,Laura E Murray-Kolb

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0223056

Dana C Mccoy, Jorge Cuartas + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223056

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Abstract

This study examined variation in the timing of 5,447 infants’ and toddlers’ reported acquisition of 12 basic social-emotional skills across and within 11 developing and developed country sites. Although children differed significantly across sites in when they attained social-emotional skills on average (e.g., M age Brazil = 20.50 months vs. M age India = 26.92 months), there was also substantial heterogeneity across skills. For example, children in Pakistan were reported to demonstrate sympathy on average seven months earlier than their peers in Ghana, whereas the opposite was true for sharing. Overall, country-level health and education were strongly associated (r > .60) with earlier site-level skill attainment. In addition to heterogeneity across sites, we also observed notable within-site variability in skill development (ICCs = .03 to .38). Future research is needed to identify sources of variability and how to promote skills that matter within a given context.

Highlights

Bioecological and dynamic systems theories have long emphasized the importance of context for shaping children’s development over time [1,2] Research from cross-cultural and cultural psychology has repeatedly shown that parents’ caregiving strategies and expectations for their children’s development differ substantially across contexts [3,4,5], shaping the “cultural regularities”[6] and “developmental niches” [7] in which young children grow and learn
Data for the present study come from the Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (CREDI) database, which includes information on the early development of approximately 15,000 infants and toddlers living in 17 high, middle, and low-income countries
Rather than using the full scale score, the present analysis focuses on 12 items that were selected to reflect six core constructs of social-emotional development that have been found to be relevant for a variety of cultures and income levels (e.g., [26,27])

Summary

Introduction

Bioecological and dynamic systems theories have long emphasized the importance of context for shaping children’s development over time [1,2] Research from cross-cultural and cultural psychology has repeatedly shown that parents’ caregiving strategies and expectations for their children’s development differ substantially across contexts [3,4,5], shaping the “cultural regularities”[6] and “developmental niches” [7] in which young children grow and learn. Despite strong theoretical and empirical support for the importance of context in shaping early child development, relatively little is known regarding the universality of social and emotional skills, [12]. In Western settings, the early development of these skills has been

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