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Culture and the perceived organization of newborn behavior: A comparative study in Kenya and the United States
Author(s) -
Super Charles M.,
Harkness Sara
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
new directions for child and adolescent development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1534-8687
pISSN - 1520-3247
DOI - 10.1002/cad.20366
Subject(s) - kenya , psychology , competence (human resources) , developmental psychology , cognition , multidimensional scaling , cognitive development , similarity (geometry) , social psychology , dimension (graph theory) , scale (ratio) , geography , political science , statistics , mathematics , cartography , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science , pure mathematics , law , image (mathematics)
Abstract 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.