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The paradigm of family-centered early childhood intervention indicates that the family and professionals are in a symmetrical relationship and share responsibility for taking appropriate measures to provide the child and his/her family with adequate support based on the family's needs and resources. The aim of the study was to identify the level of parental competences (translated as parents' dispositions conditioning their use of such ways of dealing with the child that fosters its development - shaping the child's autonomy and self-regulation skills and sense of efficacy) of parents of children undergoing early intervention, in this case, children with hearing impairment. The study covered 52 randomly chosen mothers. Parental Competence Test by Anna Matczak and Aleksandra Jaworowska was used to measure outcome results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's school performance is often associated with parenting practices, implying a direct link between parents' behavior, child development, and academic success. Through the case of an Indian forest‐dwelling community, I offer an alternative view of child development, learning, and teaching, which prioritizes social skills above—and as a precondition of—academic/practical ones. I discuss the implications of such view to the evaluation of parenting, and more broadly, of formal education for marginalized indigenous communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infancy is characterized by physical and biological changes and growth, and across cultures, parents associate this period with care, protection, and nutrition. However, beyond the universal aspects of infancy, the ways in which caretakers understand babies' needs and nature are subject to great cultural variation. In this article I explore how people in a township in Lusaka, Zambia, conceptualize and understand how babies become social persons. Particular attention is paid to how human potentials are seen to naturally grow and unfold if properly cultivated in the relationships that the child shares with others. I will also discuss how local models of natural growth contrast models of early child development offered by international parenting intervention programs that focus on how parents in poor communities can stimulate young children's cognitive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been much discussion about the high performance of East Asian students in international high stakes testing, but little attention has been paid to their lifeworlds beyond school. In this article we explore findings from a survey of 627 Year 4 children (nine and ten years old) in three global cities (Hong Kong, Singapore, and Melbourne), focusing on their out-of-school activities as one aspect of their lifeworlds. The findings indicate that the most common activities in each location were comparable. Since the activities in the three locations were largely similar, the findings problematise East/West binaries which have been a feature of research and discussions in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes scenes from videos of young children being dropped off by their parents or grandparents in Chinese and US preschools. This is an emotionally and cognitively complex event; it asks the child to cross a threshold between the worlds of home and school and the parent or grandparent to turn the care of their child over to teachers. Our analysis suggests that these drop‐off routines reflect complicated interactions of ethnotheories of parenting and child development, implicit cultural pedagogies, changing social pressures and concerns, and affordances and constraints of space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) examination is usually done in the relatively homogeneous hospital setting. This standardization of context has been a critical procedure in facilitating research on groups of babies differing in important dimensions, such as nutritional status, gestational age, and ethnic back-ground. Because the NBAS is generally used in the nursery, it has not been necessary for researchers to focus on the possible effects of variations in this context. Indeed, while both genetic and intrauterine factors are recognized as important in the manual of instruction, the issue of postnatal factors is barely mentioned. Application of the examination to cross-cultural settings, however, often involves work outside hospitals .

This article examines the educational practices of elementary schooling in South Korea, especially the case of the recent "innovation school (hyeoksinhakgyo)" movement in the public school system. In particular, the educational unit of the home class, called "ban," has been strengthened in innovation schools to nurture, simultaneously, communality and creativity among students. By presenting ethnographic scenes from a sixth‐grade home class, I seek to show how the sociality of the home class is organized, and interpersonal behaviors are regulated by the teacher to nurture interdependence among the students, interdependence as a crucial foundation for creativity learning and community spirit in the ban. I also attend to the children's responses and reactions to the organizing and regulating of their peer relationships, especially when equality is imposed as a paramount value in peer sociality. [Interdependence, Peer Group, Schooling, Home Class, South Korea] 본 논문은 초등학교에서의 현지조사를 토대로 2010년대 한국의 혁신학교에서 나타나는 공교육 개혁의 방향성과 그 실천적 효과를 검토한다. 특히 학생들의 공동체성과 창의성을 함양하는 과정에서 혁신학교에서 '반'이라는 교육의 기본단위가 강화되는 장면들에 주목한다. 보다 구체적으로, 반의 사회성이 어떤 식으로 구축되는지, 교사‐학생 간, 그리고 또래 간 관계성이 교사에 의해 어떻게 조정되는지 살펴본다. 교사는 지속적으로 학생들 간 상호의존성을 일깨우고자 하는데, 상호의존성은 창의성 교육 및 반 공동체성의 핵심적 토대로 자리한다. 이 연구는 무엇보다도 교사가 또래관계에 개입하고 규제하는 방식, 그리고 아이들이 그것에 반응하는 양태에 주목한다. 이러한 방식과 양태는 반 공동체의 핵심가치로 평등이 부각되는 순간들과 연루되어 있다. 이를 통해 전지구화 시대 한국에서 공교육 개혁이 반의 공동체적 특징을 강화하거나 재각색하는 작업임을, 그리고 공동체성의 핵심에 특정한 평등이라는 이상이 놓여있음을 밝힌다. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding culture is essential for understanding child development, and thus for designing and evaluating interventions to improve children's physical and mental health. We outline seven key aspects of culture, and then review the Developmental Niche, a theoretical framework created to highlight the dynamics of cultural influence on development and to guide assessment of the child's cultural surround. Within this framework, Parental Ethnotheories are an especially important part of the psychology of caretakers, as they influence parental behavior both directly and through parents' choices of settings and customs of care. Two examples to illustrate the usefulness of this perspective are provided. One demonstrates the cost of ignoring culture in a large-scale intervention to combat poverty in the United States; the other outlines successful use of the Developmental Niche framework in an intervention to improve infant health in Bangladesh. Together, these examples illuminate the seven aspects of culture reviewed in the introduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary we first examine psychometric issues in the ambitious enterprise of cross‐cultural application of the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA). The present reports span a wide range of cultural places. Overall, the PBA presents good face validity and a strong replication of factor structure; future multi‐group confirmatory factor analysis will enable quantitative comparisons not currently possible. Content validity is not fully addressed in these reports, so nuanced differences in the nature of parental burnout remain an interesting possibility. Variation the PBA's correlations with other measures, such as education and household type, suggests cultural mediation in the causes and dynamics of parental burnout. In the second part of our commentary, we address more directly whether parental burnout is influenced by the sociocultural context in which it is manifest. We propose that future research will benefit from more precise description of the particular cultural community involved, including the settings, customs, and ethnotheories of parenting. Gaining a global understanding of parental burnout, in other words, rests on building firmer and more differentiated pictures at the local level. The papers in this volume nevertheless present an important step forward in what promises to be an exciting journey of discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture and human development blossomed as a research enterprise in the last quarter of the 20th century; the energy and innovation of that enterprise are less evident now. Where did it go, and where is it going? In this essay, we examine the shifting fields of cross‐cultural psychology, psychological anthropology, cultural psychology, indigenous psychology, and the surge of research on Individualism/Collectivism. Offering both academic and personal perspectives, we reflect on the importance of "culture" as a construct, and the value of focusing on individual development in that context. The way forward now, we suggest, is international and intercultural collaboration of scientists. The challenge for training new researchers from diverse backgrounds, however, is to equip them with the knowledge and insights gained from cross‐cultural psychology, psychological anthropology, and their own cultures, rather than simply making the next generation of scholars into new representatives of Western theories of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where does the human aesthetic come from? How does it develop? By introducing the notion of the 'niche' ('aesthetic niche') as a key term in an empirically and evolutionarily informed aesthetics, this paper aims to take a fresh look at these and similar questions. It also aims to shed new light on the development and functioning of the aesthetic capacity in humans and its trans-generational transmission. Drawing on recent research developments in evolutionary biology, developmental psychology, and cognitive sciences, I shall argue that the human aesthetic capacity—which I understand as the capacity, involving perceptual, cognitive and emotional processes, to enter into a pleasurable/non-pleasurable and expressive relation with objects, artworks, natural phenomena, or other people—relies on constructed environmental resources (that is, on a niche) for its emergence and its ontogenetic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The behavior of newborns is ambiguous. Cultural models—representations shared by members of a community—provide new parents and others with a cognitive and motivational structure to understand them. This study asks members of several cultural groups (total n = 100) to judge the "similarity" of behavioral items in the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). Data were obtained from NBAS experts, mothers, and undergraduates in Massachusetts, and mothers and high‐school students in rural Kenya. Multidimensional scaling of their judgments reveals that NBAS experts were especially attentive to a dimension of State Control—exactly as the scale emphasizes. Kenyan mothers focused on a dimension of motor responsiveness—in accord with their concern and practices regarding motor development, and the Massachusetts mothers organized their judgments around cognitive competence—abilities emphasized in contemporary discussions of early development. The US students appear to be more similar to US mothers than did the Kenya students to the Kenyan mothers. Each adult group's representation reflects their cultural values and goals, and helps them understand the newborn child in local terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Recent years have witnessed increasing attention to early childhood education and care as a foundation for children's successful development in school and beyond. The great majority of children in postindustrial societies now attend preschools or daycare, making this setting a major part of their culturally constructed developmental niches. Although an extensive literature demonstrates the importance of parental involvement or engagement in their children's schools, relationships between parents and their children's preschools have received scant attention in the research literature. This paper aims to address that gap through a mixed‐methods cross‐cultural study of parents and preschools in four Western countries: Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States. Following an introduction to national systems of preschool in each country, parents' involvement and ideas about the family–school relationship are presented, drawing from parental diaries and from semistructured interviews (n = 110). Results indicate areas of cross‐cultural similarity but also some differences, especially between the U.S. sample and the three European samples. Discussion addresses the question of how preschools and parents can work together to create optimal developmental niches for their young children. The authors also suggest that parent–preschool relationships deserve greater attention by both researchers and program developers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research by Xinyin Chen and others has documented that in past decades, shyness in Chinese children was associated with leadership, peer‐acceptance, and academic achievement. In contemporary China, shyness predicts maladaptive youth outcomes. Although social, political, and economic transitions are presumed to be responsible for this shift, little is known about how societal change mediates parents' beliefs and the socialization of shy children. This qualitative study explored implicit parenting cognitions and attitudes about shyness in a Chinese urban middle‐class group of mothers (N = 20). Thematic analyses revealed mothers' beliefs about the role of family socialization in the development/maintenance of shyness and the complexities between shyness and introversion. Mothers spoke of increased use of child‐centered parenting practices and the promotion of assertive and self‐assured traits. These findings highlight how Chinese parenting has contributed to the decline in the adaptive value of shyness, and inform the development of parenting interventions for shy Chinese children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the cultural construction of "difficult" temperament in the first 2 years of life, as well as the logistical and thematic continuity across infancy and childhood in what mothers perceive as difficult. It extends earlier work regarding older children in six cultural sites: Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. In order to compare temperament profiles across sites, a "derived etic" version of standard temperament scales is constructed, and then examined in relation to mothers' global ratings of how "difficult" the child is to manage. Results are compared to the earlier report. Negative Mood and low Adaptability tend to be problematic in most sites in both age groups. High Activity and Intensity increase in their relevance to difficulty from the first 2 years to early childhood. In some sites, dispositions such as low Approach become less difficult to manage. Of particular note are culturally unique patterns of continuity that appear to be related to larger cultural themes. These results have implications for our theoretical understanding of parenting, as well as for educational and clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The seven papers in this issue address a variety of challenges that parents in several different cultural places encounter as they do their best to ensure their children's safe, happy, and successful development from infancy through middle childhood: infant sleep, developmental agendas, temperament, preschools, academic success, and learning to be a parent in a new cultural environment. The authors use a varied of methods — qualitative and quantitative — to understand how parental figures in Botswana, China, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United States think about the needs of their children, their own role as parents, and the caretaking practices that follow. A final Commentary focuses on the power of parental ethnotheories in changing societies, and on the complexities and importance of cross‐cultural research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although children's school success is a parental goal in most cultures, there is wide cultural variation in the qualities that parents most wish their children to develop for that purpose. A questionnaire contained forty‐one child qualities was administered to 757 parents in seven cultural communities in Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted separately within each sample and results revealed both similarities and differences across the seven samples. The factor structures showed considerable similarity: four domains of characteristics (Cognitive Qualities, Social Qualities, Negative temperament, and Good Characters) were identified in each sample as strongly influencing children's success in school. However, parents differed across the seven cultural communities in the importance they attributed to these factors. The results also reveal some culturally unique patterns in parents' concepts of the successful schoolchild; the seven samples were differentiated by distinctive associations of individual qualities around the four common domains. These results offer new insights for incorporating perspectives from other cultures into our own concepts of what qualities are most important for children's success in school, and how educators can be cognizant of differing cultural perspectives represented by the families whose children are their students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the earliest challenges for infants and their parents is developing a diurnal sleep–wake cycle. Although the human biological rhythm is circadian by nature, its development varies across cultures, based in part on "zeitgebers" (German: literally "time‐givers") or environmental cues. This study uses the developmental niche framework by Super and Harkness to address two different approaches to getting the baby on a schedule. 33 Dutch and 41 U.S. mothers were interviewed when their babies were 2 and 6 months old. A mixed‐methods analysis including counts of themes and practices as well as the examination of actual quotes shows that Dutch mothers emphasized the importance of regularity in the baby's daily life and mentioned practices to establish regular schedules for the baby's sleeping, eating, and time outside more than American mothers did. The U.S. mothers, in contrast, discussed regularity less often and when they did, they emphasized that their baby should develop his or her own schedule. Furthermore, actual daily schedules, based on time allocation diaries kept by the mothers, revealed greater regularity among the Dutch babies. Discussion focuses on how culture shapes the development of diurnal rhythms, with implications for "best practices" for infant care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban and rural grandmothers (n = 20) in Botswana participated in focus groups to learn their expectations for the acquisition of skills by preschool children. Their expectations for self‐care, traditional politeness, and participation in household chores were dramatically earlier than developmental timetables reported for Western middle‐class populations. There are some differences, however, in the urban and rural grandmothers' expectations. Rural grandmothers had earlier expectations for self‐care skills and participation in household chores, and they had more specific expectations for mastering Setswana cultural customs. In addition, some urban grandmothers, who were generally more educated, described using more reciprocal communication, and they believed in playing with their grandchildren, whereas the rural grandmothers' communication was more instructional, and they insisted that children should play away from adults. Strikingly, there was no mention of school readiness goals or activities by either group, suggesting a "cultural misfit" between the standard early childhood curriculum, largely imported from the United States and other Western countries, and the cultural backgrounds of Batswana families. To create a more workable partnership between preschool teachers and grandparents—important caretakers of young children, both traditionally and currently—will require efforts to acknowledge and promote the values and expectations of both groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that playful learning helps foster the development of young children. Adult guidance of this play in meaningful ways can unlock the transformative power of education. Lack of knowledge about guided play, however, often leads to children growing up without opportunities to learn through play. Considering this, the authors analyze findings from the pilot phases of Play Every Day, an intervention based in urban communities in India, Mexico, and South Africa. This program is designed to shift the perceptions of care givers about play and its relationship to child development and to allow them to guide children in learning through play. The authors describe the program's intent to contribute to global knowledge of best practices for promoting playful learning. They discuss developing a global framework and contextualizing its delivery to empower care givers as ambassadors of learning through play in young children's lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fathers' direct care (e.g., carrying, sensitive caregiving, cultural transmission) can potentially improve children's health, well-being, and social development. However, between- and within-culture variation in fathers' roles in these domains remains understudied, particularly in work on small-scale societies, and we know relatively little about how these roles intersect with indirect paternal care (e.g., provisioning, resource defense) to shape child health outcomes. We use data from Bondongo fisher-farmers of the Republic of the Congo to test the relationship between a man's relative fit to a local cultural model of fatherhood and his children's health as measured by local perceptions, anthropometrics, and biomarkers of psychosocial stress (Epstein-Barr virus [EBV] antibodies) and immune activation (C-reactive protein; CRP). Results indicate that Bondongo fatherhood is multidimensional and that higher-quality direct care is associated with better child health and growth, whereas the association with indirect care is less clear. Additionally, paternal care was unrelated to CRP or EBV, but marital disputes correlated with elevated EBV antibody titers, suggesting that psychosocial stress is related to these family dynamics. Thus, Bondongo fathers' care helps shape children's health, consistent with the local cultural model and evolutionary frameworks suggesting a broad and flexible role for hominin fatherhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that a greater understanding of the part of ethics in leadership will improve leadership studies. Debates over the definition of leadership are really debates over what researchers think constitutes good leadership. The ultimate question is not "What is leadership?" but "What is good leadership?" The word good is refers to both ethics and competence. Research into leadership ethics would explore the ethical issues of current leadership research, serve as a critical study of the field, analyze and expand normative theories of leadership, and develop new theories, research questions and ways of thinking about leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study of 50 indigenous Palestinian Bedouin parents from six unrecognized villages in the Naqab (Negev) Desert in southern Israel explores parental perceptions of risk for children in the context of structural oppression, cultural transition, conservative lifestyle, and ongoing political conflict. Data were collected through focus groups and semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings demonstrate a wide range of perceived risks, including physical environment-related challenges, parental-related challenges, sociocultural-related challenges, and policy and political-related challenges. Despite these numerous risk factors, Bedouin families report coping and trying to prevent risk through maternal investment in child rearing, social cohesion and tribal support, spirituality and religion, and their collective history. This case study underscores the importance of giving voice to the voiceless, learning from parents about risks for children, understanding how settler colonialism affects Bedouin parents' everyday lives, and using a context-informed perspective in the debate about risk and child protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]