By: Noah Morales
Introduction:
Every time my parents discuss how to raise a child with new families, the common phrase of “parenting doesn’t come with a handbook” tends to get thrown out. Despite this, a large majority of the advice given is what their parents or themselves did throughout raising their child. This advice typically comes from experiences that past parents have encountered and overcame. However, this advice is not the same amongst everybody. There are many cultural differences that parents may believe in and recognizing these differences in development is critical to each child as they develop.
Sleeping Patterns:
As an infant, sleeping and sleeping arrangements are vital to a baby's development. When it comes to these arrangements, every detail counts. Things such as proximity to a parent, nursing, and even bedtime routines are all included within a sleeping pattern. However, different cultures have differing actions. According to Morelli et al. (1992) it was found that caucasian middle class families in Utah do not share a room with their children, stay up at night to feed their children, and have strict bedtime routines with a kid usually having a comfort item like a teddy bear or blanket. This differs from Guatemalan families and Mayan culture, where there is co-sleeping until the age of two, nursing on demand without staying up, and no bedtime routine or comfort items.
What the report fails to include are other ethnic groups in the U.S, as well as other socio-economic backgrounds. The goal of the study was to broaden the understanding of cultural practices between families in the U.S. and families of Mayan descent with sleeping patterns, but did not succeed to look at any other ethnic groups. Despite this, Morelli accurately describes and notes differing patterns between the two cultures.
Motor Actions:
When observing other people’s reaching actions, the main hand you fixate on is the one actively moving, and not the other hand that isn’t reaching. By this logic, we have the ability to predict the objective of other people’s actions based on their hands. As infants develop, there is an increase in the amount of actions performed. For example, six-month-old infants can predict eating actions performed by an individual with a spoon, putting objects inside containers at ten to twelve months, and placing puzzle pieces on a puzzle board at 25 months. However, with the first motor actions, not every culture uses spoons to eat. A study performed by Green et al. (2016) gathered infants of Swedish and Chinese descent that were eight months, and investigated their ability to predict the goal of self-directed, tool-use actions that they have more experience with performing. These actions were performed using two different tools, being spoons and chopsticks.
The hypothesis behind this study is that each infant would be able to predict the goal of actions based on the tool they are most acquainted with. The final sample of infants included 56 infants, with 28 of them coming from each culture. What was found was that Chinese infants were able to fixate on the mouth before the food arrived there, only if chopsticks were used as a mechanism for eating. When a spoon was used, the Chinese infants failed to predict the events of what the action resulted in. Swedish infants produced the opposite results, where they were able to predict patterns by using a spoon, but not with the chopsticks. These findings highlight the idea of a difference in cultural development between ethnic groups, as although the means to produce the action was the same between each tool, it was the tool that determined whether or not the infant was able to recognize actions.
Care of Preterm Infants:
The term “preterm infant” is described as any baby that is born alive before 37 weeks of pregnancy has been completed. Usually when a baby is preterm, they must spend some time in the hospital before getting discharged safely and healthily. Despite this, the term healthily takes different definitions depending on the culture that person is from. A study done by Adama (2020) explores the influence of sociocultural practices on caring for infants in the Ghanaian community. To do this, Adama interviewed thirty parents between the ages of 19 and 38.
Within this culture, there were three prevalent themes amongst the majority of the families with a prenatal infant. Respect for the elderly, the use of herbal medicine, and communal living. In regards to the elderly, there was an overwhelming amount of respect for the eldest member in the family, and it is deemed disrespectful questioning what they believed regardless of education levels. For herbal medicine, it is a common practice amongst both rural and urban Ghanaians to be used. Some childhood illnesses in the community are considered not for hospitals, and use spiritual and herbal treatment. Although this is the most popular choice, there are some families that are unable to resist them. Infants in Ghana can be seen with white paint on their skin and wearing special charms, anklets, and bracelets. Finally, communal living includes the newborn as a part of it. Therefore, neighbors, friends, and family members all provide spontaneous advice. Additionally, the community helps to step in with house chores such as cleaning, cooking, fetching water, and running errands when a newborn joins the community. These distinct forms of care are special to the Ghanan community, and follow their own distinct form of care.
Conclusion:
To conclude, each culture and community has their own specific ways of providing help to the development of an infant. It is unfair to criticize how one culture may do something that another culture might. Everyone has their own special way to help, and there is no right or wrong way to raise a child that is the product of their environment. Overall, there is one common goal amongst every community, and that is to develop the infant in a happy and healthy way.
References:
Adama, Esther Abena, et al. “Sociocultural practices affecting the care of preterm infants in the Ghanaian community.” Journal of Transcultural Nursing, vol. 32, no. 5, 22 Nov. 2020, pp. 458–465, https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659620975098.
Green, D., Li, Q., Lockman, J.J. and Gredebäck, G. (2016), Culture Influences Action Understanding in Infancy: Prediction of Actions Performed With Chopsticks and Spoons in Chinese and Swedish Infants. Child Dev, 87: 736-746. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/10.1111/cdev.12500
Morelli, Gilda A., et al. “Cultural variation in infants’ sleeping arrangements: Questions of independence.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 28, no. 4, 1992, pp. 604–613, https://doi.org/10.1037//0012-1649.28.4.604.
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