Early Childhood Socialization Research Articles

The development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior: Protocol for Wave 1 data collection with children and parents by the Developing Belief Network.

The Developing Belief Network is a consortium of researchers studying human development in diverse social-cultural settings, with a focus on the interplay between general cognitive development and culturally specific processes of socialization and cultural transmission in early and middle childhood. The current manuscript describes the study protocol for the network's first wave of data collection, which aims to explore the development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior. This work is guided by three key research questions: (1) How do children represent and reason about religious and supernatural agents? (2) How do children represent and reason about religion as an aspect of social identity? (3) How are religious and supernatural beliefs transmitted within and between generations? The protocol is designed to address these questions via a set of nine tasks for children between the ages of 4 and 10 years, a comprehensive survey completed by their parents/caregivers, and a task designed to elicit conversations between children and caregivers. This study is being conducted in 39 distinct cultural-religious groups (to date), spanning 17 countries and 13 languages. In this manuscript, we provide detailed descriptions of all elements of this study protocol, give a brief overview of the ways in which this protocol has been adapted for use in diverse religious communities, and present the final, English-language study materials for 6 of the 39 cultural-religious groups who are currently being recruited for this study: Protestant Americans, Catholic Americans, American members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, and religiously unaffiliated Americans.

Prenatal buds of conditional regard and autonomy support: Associations with postnatal parenting and child adjustment.

Toddlerhood is a period where issues of autonomy and control in parent-child relationships become particularly intense. In response to these challenges, some parents adopt controlling practices, whereas others are more autonomy supportive. However, research has yet to examine prenatal orientations that foreshadow specific controlling or autonomy-supportive parental practices in toddlerhood and children's socioemotional functioning. In particular, literature on early childhood socialization lacks sufficient evidence on the effects of the controversial controlling practice of parental conditional positive regard. To increase our knowledge on these issues, we examined reports provided by Israeli Jewish mothers during their first pregnancy (N = 294), at 18-month postpartum (N = 226), and when the child was 42 months old (N = 134). To control for child temperament, both parents reported 8-month postpartum (N = 235) on infant temperament dispositions, which may act as precursors of later socioemotional functioning. Structural equations modeling revealed that a general prenatal maternal orientation to use conditional regard as a socialization practice predicted mothers' use of the specific practices of conditional positive and negative regard with toddlers, which then predicted internalizing problems when children reached the age of 42 months. Additionally, a general prenatal orientation toward autonomy-supportive parenting predicted mothers' perspective taking with toddlers, which then predicted children's prosocial behavior at 42 months. The effects emerged also after controlling for infants' temperamental dispositions toward negative emotionality and positive affect. Findings underlie the potential role of prenatal orientations toward conditional regard and autonomy support that, when later transform into specific early parenting practices, may serve as early markers of child socioemotional adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Contextual Weaning Process for 3–4-Year-Old Playgroup Students

This study describes the weaning process for students who are still attached to their parents or caregivers at the start of learning in play groups using contextual learning and describes the factors that influence it. Qualitative descriptive research with the subjects of school principals, teachers, students, and parents in Kemuning Kepanjen playgroup, through the process of observation, interviews, and documentation analysis. The results of the research show that the strategy for weaning students using contextual learning media and infrastructure in a fairly complete learning environment. The chronology of the weaning process is: (1) preparation, (2) weaning process and (3) follow-up. This strategy is supported by quite complete outdoor media, good communication and socialization patterns, participation and support of parents in the environment around the school. The factors that influence the weaning process are (1) early childhood socialization, (2) the initial process of introducing learning to the environment, (3) effective communication patterns between teachers and parents, (4) teacher's strategies during early learning, and (5) media infrastructure that is complete, safe, and easily accessible. There were no significant obstacles in the weaning process, apart from variations in the communication between teachers and parents, and the conditions that were there were interrelated

Linguistic identity in multigenerational ethnic minority/ethnically heterogeneous deaf families.

This paper discusses language use and identity patterns in ethnic minority/ethnically heterogeneous multigenerational deaf families in Romania, where at least one of the family members belongs to the ethnic Hungarian minority. Early childhood and school linguistic socialization, language use within the family, and cross-generational transmission of identity to children are explored. The research is based on five ethnic minority/ethnically heterogeneous multigenerational deaf family case studies. The research results show that within ethnic-national minority/ethnically heterogeneous multigenerational deaf families, complex identity patterns may develop and multifaceted linguistic communication models may prevail, including the use of national oral languages and national sign languages of the parties involved. At the same time, a kind of special linguistic and cultural enrichment, a striving for cultural-linguistic balance, may occur.

Model Pendampingan Penyelenggaraan Kelompok Bermain Holistik & Integratif

Holistic and integrative early childhood education began to be discoursed by the government at the end of 2008. All types of stimulation for children and related agencies that have been developing and fostering PAUD institutions will be managed in a complete system of administrators. Various visible influences include: if the parenting pattern applied by parents to their children is not appropriate, it will undoubtedly affect their development. The purpose of this study was to determine the model for assisting the implementation of holistic and integrative play groups. The research method used is a qualitative descriptive approach. The research subject is 1 (one) person as a manager because the manager in the Mutiara Learning Group is only one person, 2 (two) tutors because the chosen one is a teacher who holds children aged between 2 - 3 years and 5 (five) parents chosen guardian. The results of the research area in implementing holistic and integrative playgroups, the services provided to children are more comprehensive and involve various parties or authorized institutions. The institutions, managers, educators, and parents have a vital role. The Play Group process in AUD (early childhood) socialization activities is a forum. Its managers and educators have carried out their tasks well by spreading learning methods similar to methods outside of school, learning with nature, and using technology or media methods.

Ethnic-racial socialization in early childhood: effects of parent–teacher congruency on children’s social and emotional development

ABSTRACT Using propositions within critical race theory, this study examined differences between parent and teacher engagement in ethnic-racial socialization and links between parent–teacher congruence in ethnic-racial socialization and children’s social and emotional development across racial and ethnic groups. The participants were 59 parents or guardians and their preschool-aged children from diverse ethnic-racial backgrounds and 12 Head Start teachers. Parents used ethnic-racial socialization more than teachers; parents and teachers used egalitarian messages most frequently. Bayesian analyses revealed significant ethnic-racial group differences in parents’ use of egalitarian, preparation for bias, and cultural socialization messages. Gender and race had significant impacts on teacher-reported protective factors. Mismatch in parent–teacher levels of egalitarian and cultural socialization were evident predictors of lower social-emotional functioning in children. Findings highlight the importance of ethnic-racial socialization in Head Start children’s early social development and may be useful in informing early childhood practices relating to cultural continuity.

The Influence of Early Childhood Socialization on Political Decision Making in Adulthood: Benyamin Netanyahu’s Potential to Become a Peacemaker

This paper examines Benyamin Netanyahu’s potential to reject his current ‘hawkish’ views and to become a peace maker during his fifth (and probably last) term in office as the Prime Minister of Israel. Netanyahu continues to live in the shadow of the legacy of two deceased family members: his older brother Yonatan and his father Benzion. His brother Yonatan was killed in action in 1976 while leading his troops in the renowned counter-terrorism rescue mission ‘Operation Entebbe’. As a result, Yonatan became an Israeli national hero. His father Benzion, who worked as a prominent Israeli historian for decades but was rejected by the Israeli academic and political mainstream due to his ‘hawkish’ views, died in 2012 at the age of 102. It is my assumption that Netanyahu’s political activity up to the present has stemmed in part from his emotional hunger resulting from his need to measure up to the ‘larger than life’ images of his father and brother. The fact that both influential figures are deceased may now enable him to give greater expression to the more pragmatic sides of his personality in the future, and to enter history books – on his own – as a peacemaker.

The World Belongs to the Young: Representation of Socialization Agents in Early Childhood Television Content

Based on cultivation theory, this study addresses television content as a core contributor to socialization processes in early childhood. The study involved an in-depth thematic analysis of early childhood socialization agents on television channels targeting young children. The analysis revealed young viewers are presented with a world saturated by supportive friendships but few and weak representations of adults. Friends dominate the boundary-free imaginary world at the center of televised narratives. Adults are often delegated to the plots’ margins and are rarely presented as authority figures. Implications are discussed in light of the child viewers’ developmental characteristics.

Maternal emotion socialization in early childhood predicts adolescents' amygdala-vmPFC functional connectivity to emotion faces.

Guided by Eisenberg, Cumberland, and Spinrad's (1998) conceptual framework, we examined multiple components of maternal emotion socialization (i.e., reactions to children's negative emotion, emotion talk, emotional expressiveness) at 33 months of age as predictors of adolescents' amygdala-vmPFC connectivity and amygdala activation when labeling and passively observing angry and happy faces. For angry faces, more positive maternal emotion socialization behaviors predicted (a) less positive amygdala-vmPFC connectivity, which may reflect more mature vmPFC downregulation of the amygdala activation underlying implicit emotion regulation, and (b) more amygdala activation, which may reflect higher sensitivity to others' emotional cues. Associations between negative emotion socialization behaviors and neural responses to angry faces were nonsignificant, and findings for the models predicting neural responses to happy faces showed a less consistent pattern. By expanding Eisenberg et al.'s (1998) framework to consider neural processing of negative emotions, the current findings point toward the potential long-term implications of positive emotion socialization experiences during early childhood for optimal functioning of the amygdala-vmPFC circuitry during adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Supplemental Material for Maternal Emotion Socialization in Early Childhood Predicts Adolescents’ Amygdala-vmPFC Functional Connectivity to Emotion Faces

Supplemental Material for Maternal Emotion Socialization in Early Childhood Predicts Adolescents’ Amygdala-vmPFC Functional Connectivity to Emotion Faces

Within the asylum‐advocacy nexus: An analysis of Mexican transgender asylum seekers in the United States

AbstractDespite that Mexico has experienced significant legislative gains for LGBT rights, why is transphobic violence on the rise, driving increasing numbers to immigrate to the United States, even though the United States also experiences high levels of transphobic violence? This paper uses action‐based research from within the “asylum‐advocacy nexus” to analyze the experiences of Mexican transgender and gender non‐conforming persons within both the Mexican society and the US society and asylum process. Data show early childhood socialization is deeply informed by conservative religious (trans‐ and homophobic) ideas and practices that extend from the family and church into each sector of society—educational, employment, health care, public security, popular culture, sports, etc. Despite some legislative advances and possibilities for empowerment, there remains a programmatic need to address a culture of violence against sexual minorities within family, educational, legal, and public security sectors in both countries.

Do under-3s think of day-care centers as “home from home”?: Psychoanalytic investigations into primary socialization in day-care centers taking the German situation as an example

The authors note a contradiction between empirical findings and the dismissive conclusion of the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (FMFASWY) that the treatment of children in early day care will not affect their relationship to their mother or entail any serious damage for their future. They use this contradiction as an opportunity to discuss the social function of early childhood socialization in day care. They come to the impression that the FMFASWY, in its assessment of research on day-care centers, was also intuitively guided by sociopolitical interests insofar as the emergence of a social character satisfying current social requirements is favored more by primary socialization in day care than in families.

Maternal attachment, self-control, and offending among college students

ABSTRACTGottfredson and Hirschi's general theory of crime is offered as an explanation for delinquent and criminal behavior across all demographics. It focuses on early childhood socialization and its role in nurturing self-control. This study examines the general theory of crime cross-culturally while accounting for maternal attachment. For that purpose, a self-report survey was administered to a sample of 454 Hispanic and White college students enrolled at 1 of 2 universities. The effect of maternal attachment during high school and self-control on analogous behavior and crime during college was examined. Attachment and self-control related to analogous behaviors and crime. Self-control, however, was not able to entirely mediate the effects of attachment on analogous behaviors or crime.

Mother-Infant Contingent Vocalizations in 11 Countries

Mother-infant vocal interactions serve multiple functions in child development, but it remains unclear whether key features of these interactions are community-common or community-specific. We examined rates, interrelations, and contingencies of vocal interactions in 684 mothers and their 5½-month-old infants in diverse communities in 11 countries (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, and the United States). Rates of mothers’ and infants’ vocalizations varied widely across communities and were uncorrelated. However, collapsing the data across communities, we found that mothers’ vocalizations to infants were contingent on the offset of the infants’ nondistress vocalizing, infants’ vocalizations were contingent on the offset of their mothers’ vocalizing, and maternal and infant contingencies were significantly correlated. These findings point to the beginnings of dyadic conversational turn taking. Despite broad differences in the overall talkativeness of mothers and infants, maternal and infant contingent vocal responsiveness is found across communities, supporting essential functions of turn taking in early-childhood socialization.

Layers of Discourse in Preschool Block Play: An Examination of Children’s Social Interactions

Mikhail Bakhtin’s philosophical orientation concerning dialogism offers a challenge to contemporary play theory. This study demonstrates the benefits of a Bakhtinian analysis of double voicing in early childhood programs. Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism, specifically Bakhtin’s ideas on genre and utterance, has received less attention in the analysis of play. Bakhtin’s conceptualization extends the notion of genre to all spoken utterances in play activities. The purpose of the present study was to examine the existence of Bakhtin’s typology of double voicing with preschool children as they talked and built structures with unit blocks. Bakhtin identified three basic varieties of double voice discourse: (a) unidirectional, (b) vari-directional, and (c) active discourse. The investigation took place in a preschool classroom that encourages a playful curriculum. Drawing on videotaped preschool classroom examples, preschoolers’ use of double voicing in the context of block play was analyzed. The data found the two types of passive double voicing: (a) unidirectional and (b) vari-directional, as well as active categories of hidden dialogicality, parody, and skaz. Bakhtin’s view of language acquisition is discussed by only a handful of early childhood play scholars, and this article suggests early childhood professionals use Mikhail Bakhtin’s double voicing typologies in classroom as a contemporary view for framing early childhood socialization and discourse.

Early childhood socialization: Societal context and childrearing values in Hungary

This article examines the socio-cultural context of early childhood socialization in Hungary. Using a macroscopic lens, we describe the national demographic situation and the social organization of early childhood education and care. Our analysis then shifts to a microscopic focus on parental values and beliefs about the substance of what young children should be learning in different settings. Results from our national survey suggest that Hungarian parents tend to view the socialization roles of childcare workers and parents as different, but complementary: good manners should be learned at home, while cognitive and social skills should be learned in nurseries. Most respondents also think that young children should learn about the world, others, and themselves through play in group settings, while reading and math lessons should wait until elementary school.

Relations among maternal socialization, effortful control, and maladjustment in early childhood

In a sample of 18-, 30-, and 42-month-olds, the relations among parenting, effortful control (EC), and maladjustment were examined. Parenting was assessed with mothers' reports and observations; EC was measured with mothers' and caregivers' reports, as well as a behavioral task; and externalizing and internalizing symptoms were assessed with parents' and caregivers' reports. Although 18-month unsupportive (vs. supportive) parenting negatively predicted EC at 30 months, when the stability of these variables was taken into account, there was no evidence of additional potentially causal relations between these two constructs. Although EC was negatively related to both internalizing and externalizing problems within all three ages as well as across 1 year, EC did not predict maladjustment once the stability of the constructs and within time covariation between the constructs were taken into account. In addition, externalizing problems at 30 months negatively predicted EC at 42 months, and internalizing problems at 30 months positively predicted EC at 42 months, but only when the effects of externalizing on EC were controlled. The findings are discussed in terms of the reasons for the lack of causal relations over time.

Linguistic forms and educational policy: the influence of Basil Bernstein

Linguistic forms and educational policy: the influence of Basil Bernstein

Teaching and Learning Guide for: A Window on the ‘New’ Sociology of Childhood

Teaching and Learning Guide for: A Window on the ‘New’ Sociology of Childhood

Early childhood socialization and social gradients in adult health: A commentary on Singh-Manoux and Marmot's “Role of socialization in explaining social inequalities in health” (60: 9, 2005, 2129–2133)

Early childhood socialization and social gradients in adult health: A commentary on Singh-Manoux and Marmot's “Role of socialization in explaining social inequalities in health” (60: 9, 2005, 2129–2133)