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Determinants of Complexity in Mexican‐American and Anglo‐American Mothers' Conceptions of Child Development
Author(s) -
Gutierrez Jeannie,
Sameroff Arnold
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02784.x
Subject(s) - mexican americans , psychology , ethnic group , biculturalism , developmental psychology , acculturation , cultural diversity , cultural group selection , categorical variable , neuroscience of multilingualism , anthropology , sociology , neuroscience , machine learning , computer science
Complexity of parental reasoning about child development was studied in mothers who varied in ethnic background and biculturalism. Middle‐class mothers from Mexican‐American and Anglo‐American backgrounds were compared on their level of concepts of development on a scale from categorical to perspectivistic reasoning. Categorical mothers interpreted child development as being caused by single constitutional or environmental factors. Perspectivistic mothers interpreted development as the result of the dynamic interplay between constitution and environment over time and accepted that the same developmental outcome could have multiple determinants. In a comparison among moderately acculturated Mexican‐Americans, highly acculturated Mexican Americans, and Anglo Americans, the highly acculturated Mexican‐American group scored as more perspectivistic than the other two groups, despite the fact that the Anglo‐Americans were the most acculturated. When the 2 Mexican‐American groups were subdivided into monocultural (Mexican or American) and bicultural subgroups and compared with the Anglo‐American group, the bicultural subgroup of the highly acculturated Mexican‐American mothers was the most perspectivistic. These results suggest a complex picture of diversity in Mexican‐American mothers who retain values and beliefs from their own culture, as well as taking on values and beliefs of the American culture. Maternal intelligence and adherence to traditional cultural values were not found to correlate significantly with level of developmental reasoning.