Parents' Cultural Belief Systems: Their Origins, Expressions, and Consequences

Abstract

1. Introduction, Harkness and Super I. Theoretical Perspectives 2. Parents' Free Descriptions of Child Characteristics: A Cross-Cultural Search for the Developmental Antecendents of the Big Five, Kohnstamm, Halverson, Havill, and Mervielde 3. Processes of Generalization in Parental Reasoning, Valsiner and Litvinovic 4. The Answer Depends on the Question: A Conceptual and Methodological Analysis of a Parent Belief Behavior Interview Regarding Children's Learning, Sigel and Kim II. The Nature and Origins of Parents' Cultural Belief Systems 5. Essential Contrasts: Differences in Parental Ideas About Learners and Teaching in Tahiti and Nepal, Levy 6. How do Children Develop Knowledge?: Beliefs of Tansanian and American Mothers, McGillicuddy-De Lisi and Subramanian 7. Japanese Mothers' Ideas about Infants and Temperament, Shwalb, Shwalb, and Shoji 8. Scenes from a Marriage: Equality Ideology in Swedish Family Policy, Maternal Ethnotheories, and Practice, Welles-Nystrom III. Intracultural Variation: The Role of Education and Experts 9. Parents' and Adolescents' Ideas on Children: Origins and Transmission of Intracultural Diversity, Palacios and Moreno 10. Education and Mother Infant Interaction: A Mexican Case Study, LeVine, Miller, Richman, and LeVine 11. The Contrasting Developmental Timetables of Parents and Preschool Teachers in Two Cultural Communities, Edwards, Gandini, and Giovaninni 12. Ask the Doctor: The Negotiation of Cultural Models in American Parent Pediatrician Discourse, Harkness, Super, Keefer, Raghavan, and Kipp IV. The Instantiation of Parents' Cultural Belief Systems in Practices 13. From Household Practices to Parents' Ideas About Work and Interpersonal Relationships, Goodnow 14. How Mayan Parental Theories Come Into Play, Gaskins 15. Parental Theories in the Management of Young Children's Sleep in Japan, Italy, and the United States, Wolf, Lozoff, Latz, and Pauladetto 16. Maternal Beliefs and Infant-Care Practices in Italy and the United States, New and Richman V. The Consequences of Parents' Cultural Belief Systems for Children's Health and Development 17. My Child is My Crown: Yoruba Parental Theories and Practices in Early Childhood, Zeitlin 18. Growth Consequences of Low-Income Nicaraguan Mothers' Theories About Feeding 1-Year-Olds, Engle, Zeitlin, and Medrano 19. The Three R's of Dutch Childrearing and the Socialization of Infant Arousal, Super, Harkness, van Tijen, van der Flugt, Fintelman, and Dijkstra 20. Imagining and Engaging One's Children: Lessons From Poor, Rural New England Mothers, Bond, Belenky, Weinstock, and Cook 21. American Cultural Models of Early Influence and Parent Recognition of Developmental Delays: Is Earlier Always Better Than Later?, Weisner, Matheson, and Bernheimer