The study, which lasted for five years, involved infants from 23 countries. The goal of the research was to find out if generalizations about infant behavior are universal, considering that majority of psychological studies are conducted in the West. The researchers also believe that the differences in the children’s temperament may shed light on what parts of a person’s personality arise from culture.
Using the Infant Behavioral Questionnaire-Revised, which one of the study’s authors helped create in the 1990s, the researchers collected data from mothers in each country. In the questionnaire, the mothers had to report how often their children manifest 191 different behaviors at six and twelve months after birth.
Partial results comparing children from the United States, Chile, South Korea, and Poland were released in the European Journal of Developmental Psychology. The study found that the infants showed temperaments that were highly influenced by their
parents’ cultural values.
For instance, the study found that Chilean kids are very energetic and have trouble concentrating for long periods. This temperament may be influenced by South American parents’ animated behavior when interacting with their children. Meanwhile, South Korean babies exhibited long attention spans and were less active, which may be related to how parents in some parts of Asia value a high level of control among their kids.
In addition, results also showed that Polish infants were found to be more expressive of sadness than other babies, which may be related to how the Polish culture encourages expressing emotions and feelings. On the other hand, US children were seen to be hesitant in showing negative emotions, which may be because the American culture is not very tolerant of negativity.
Sigooo
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Sigooo.blogspot.com
Published:
2017-02-21T12:36:00+07:00
Title:A multinational study has found that parents
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