Sociocultural Influences on the Development of Self-Recognition and Self-Regulation in Costa Rican and Mexican Toddlers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine sociocultural influences on the development of specific sociocognitive developmental milestones. The self-recognition and self-regulation skills of 2-year-old children were assessed in two autonomous-relational cultural contexts: educated, urban, middle-class families from Costa Rica (N= 19) and Mexico (N= 15). These two cultural groups are representative of a consistent pattern of an autonomous-relational Latin American cultural model; there were no differences between the two groups in mothers’ socialization goals, maternal behavior during mother–child play, and toddlers’ self-recognition and self-regulation. As predicted by ecocultural models of development, consistent cultural models emerged: Sociodemographic factors were associated with mothers’ relative emphasis on autonomous socialization goals and lower levels of directive and didactic play. There were also significant correlations between facets of mothers’ cultural models and toddlers’ development of self-regulation, but not self-recognition. This study provides further evidence that the sociocognitive development of children’s self-regulation during the second year is dependent on the “ecological imprint” that is provided by their mothers’ cultural model. Furthermore, the same mechanisms that account for cross-cultural differences also seem to account for intracultural variation in maternal behavior and toddlers’ development.