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With the emergence of globalization and the growth in multicultural nations, it has become imperative to study the link between child development and culture. Culture broadly refers to a group’s shared attitudes, traditions, beliefs and practices that are transmitted across generations. Cultures shape children’s experiences, and cross-cultural work attempts to study the processes by which these influences occur.
Two distinct frameworks have been used to explore the connection between culture and child development. The most commonly used is the etic framework, where a method used to measure a concept, such as social competence, is assumed to be pertinent to all cultures. One potential risk associated with this framework is a failure to explore other more culturally-relevant definitions of a concept. For instance, ren or patient endurance is used to define social competence in China, and is observed when children detach themselves from confrontation to encourage the opponent to show self-control. Although this construct is different than conceptualizations of social competence in western countries, the distinction may not be acknowledged through an etic framework. This framework can also be disruptive for the dissemination of local knowledge, practice and traditions that are used to educate children. In contrast, the emic framework considers the meaning of a given concept, practice and principle for members of a cultural group, and is a more unbiased approach to understand how culture influences child development.
Broad cultural trends have been categorized through the dimensions of individualism and collectivism. Individualism is related to Western ideologies about independence and competitiveness, whereas collectivism refers to Southern and Eastern dogma about interdependence and group harmony. Although these dimensions coexist within nations, it is assumed that some cultures are more individualistic, or more collectivistic, than others. This allows researchers to understand why the same behaviour or practice carries different meanings across cultures.
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