Culture influences several spheres of child development. A child’s learning experiences in a culture without an official education system are shaped through their participation with or observation of adults engaging in culturally relevant activities (e.g. girls learning how to weave from their mothers in the traditional Mayan peasant culture). Culture also plays a role in socio-emotional development by either promoting or discouraging particular behaviours. Although most of the existing knowledge about socio-emotional development comes from studies with North-American children, there is evidence for cultural variability. For instance, pretend play is far less common in children from Eastern countries, such as Korea, than in Western children. When this form of play does occur in Eastern cultures, children often impersonate a family member but rarely pretend to be a fairy tale character.
Differences in temperament also exist between cultures. Preschool children from Korea and China tend be more anxious, inhibited and withdrawn, and less sociable than their Western-European counterparts. Whereas a child’s inhibited conduct is associated with a risk of troubled peer relationships and internalizing problems (e.g., loneliness and depression) in Western cultures, these difficulties are much less common in inhibited children from Eastern cultures, though new research shows that children from India and urban China are equally at risk. These differences can be explained through the meaning assigned to these behaviours. In East-Asian cultures where group harmony is valued, an inhibited child is viewed as socially-competent, obedient and polite. In contrast, an inhibited child in Western cultures is perceived as apprehensive and lacking in social skills.
Children from cultures emphasizing interdependence tend to act less aggressively and more prosocially than children from nations where independence and competitiveness is valued. Compared to European-American mothers, more Chinese mothers believe that their child should act prosocially to conform with group norms (e.g. fitting in) and emphasize self-control as a childrearing practice. Regardless of the culture, one universal trend is that children who are prosocial and nonaggressive are liked by other children.
The meaning of friendship also differs across cultures. In nations such as Cuba and Korea where friendships are an index of success, school-age children report closer relationships with peers compared to North-American children. Children in Eastern cultures also use detachment to resolve conflicts with friends while Western children prefer to negotiate with their peers.
Every nation shares a desire to promote child development, but cultures differ in their beliefs about which child outcomes should be prioritized. An illustration of this is seen in the different national versions of Sesame Street. While the original American television program was developed to promote learning of reading and counting, an adapted version in Northern Ireland dedicates equal portions of the program to the learning of prosocial actions, and in the Israeli Rechov Sumsum, the content of the program emphasizes mutual respect and understanding.
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