Family Socialization During Early Childhood: Culture and Context

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Family Socialization During Early
ChildhoodCulture and Context

• Ellen E. Pinderhughes
• Vanderbilt University

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Universal development and relative influences

• Culture and context
• Attachment
• Discipline

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Family relationships in community contexts
Child
Family
Community
Social Policy
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Culture values, beliefs, practices designed to
enable a group to meet needs physical,
biological, psychological, etc.

• independence vs interdependence
• degree and type of parental control
• management of misbehavior
• emphasis on achievement
• goals for role in culture as an adult

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Characteristics that reflect cultural variation

• ethnicity/race
• religion
• gender
• SES
• language
• generational status in country (immigrant, 1st -
  nth generation)
• region of country
• romantic/sexual orientation

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Contextual influences

• setting urban, suburban, rural
• economic circumstances stability and change
• neighborhood resources - sufficiency, quality
• food stores, access to transportation
• involvement in community
• safety/danger of community

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Attachment

• Behavioral system that ensures survival of infant
  
• Critical for survival of infant and species
• Provides a mechanism for balancing the need for
  safety, security, comfort AND need to explore
• linked to degree of synchrony between caregiver
  and child
• caregiver responsiveness, sensitivity to need
• infant temperament

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Attachment patterns

• SECURE
• sensitive care 8 felt security 8 confident,
  connected
• ANXIOUS RESISTANT
• erratic care 8 preoccupied, hesitant 8 anxious,
  dependent
• ANXIOUS AVOIDANT
• Unresponsive care 8 distant, flat 8 aggressive,
  lacks empathy
• DISORGANIZED
• Threat from caregiver 8 confused, anxious 8
  dissociative

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Secure attachment and later development

• infant/toddler secure base for exploration,  
    self-efficacy

• preschool more socially competent, curious
    more learning

• school age more skilled with friendships,   
    managing emotions, learning

• adolescence/adulthood intimacy
    parenting   social problem solving

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Contextual risk factors that undermine secure
attachment

• Caregiver history of child abuse or other trauma
• Severe contextual stressors
• Lack of resources

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Culturally related influences on secure
attachment and its impact on development

• Different beliefs about how responsive caregiver
  should be can lead to different types of
  caregiver responses to infant
• Presence and level of involvement of extended
  family may minimize negative impact of insecure
  attachment with parent

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Influences that can improve insecure attachment

• have supportive, responsive adult available in
  childhood
• extended family, foster/adoptive parent,
  mentors
• have supportive partner when become parent
• have come to some resolution of childhood
  experiences
• (usually through therapy lasting at least 6
  months)

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Discipline Key purposes

• Get childs attention
• Deliver lesson and facilitate learning so
  misbehavior/mistake will not happen again

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Discipline Getting childs attention

• Time-out
• Withdrawal of privileges
• Physical punishment
• Scolding

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Discipline Deliver lesson

• Inductive reasoning explanation of why it was
  wrong impact on others

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Harsh Discipline

• All forms of discipline can be delivered in
  harsh manner
• Ongoing debate regarding physical discipline
• What we know about harsh discipline

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Two paths to harsh discipline
Beliefs, values about harshdiscipline and
raising children - religious beliefs- cultural
groups history - preparation for harsh world
Planned Path
Harsh Discipline
Reactive Path
Stressors- neighborhood danger- negative life
events - economic stressCaregiver
upsetCaregiver worry about future
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Community Influences on Harsh Discipline
Planned path Reactive path

• Members share beliefs about value of harshness
• Allows or fosters negative experiences for which
  parents prepare youth

• Neighborhood danger
• Lack of resources, isolation

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Implications for community building

• Ensure that all communities provide sufficient
  resources so families can develop healthy
  attachments, minimize reacting discipline
• Make services culturally-relevant
• Community builders and interventionists have
  more awareness of own world view and its impact

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Family relationships in community contexts
Child
Family
Community
Social Policy