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A Window Into Different Cultural Worlds: Young Children's Everyday Activities in the United States, Brazil, and Kenya
Author(s) -
Tudge Jonathan R. H.,
Doucet Fabienne,
Odero Dolphine,
Sperb Tania M.,
Piccinini Cesar A.,
Lopes Rita S.
Publication year - 2006
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.1467-8624.2006.00947.x
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , normative , ethnic group , psychology , social environment , developmental psychology , cultural diversity , child development , social class , intersection (aeronautics) , everyday life , race (biology) , gender studies , social psychology , sociology , geography , anthropology , social science , political science , law , archaeology , cartography
A powerful means to understand young children's normative development in context is to examine their everyday activities. The daily activities of 79 children (3 years old) were observed, for 20 hr each, in their usual settings. Children were selected from 4 cultural groups: European American and African American (Greensboro, United States), Luo (Kisumu, Kenya), and European descent (Porto Alegre, Brazil), evenly divided by social class. Examining children's naturally occurring engagement in school‐relevant activities, both in and out of child care, revealed the importance of ecological context. The variation in activities was not explainable simply by cultural group (including race within the United States) or social class, but by the intersection of culture and class. The developmental implications of these findings are discussed.