The socialization of children’s contributions at home: A comparison between indigenous-Ecuadorian and German children

• In Event: 2-126 - Informal Teaching and Socialization across Cultures – Key Processes and Developmental Outcomes

Integrative Statement

Empirical studies have shown that children are able and willing to cooperate in simple tasks at a very early age (14-18 months), and they do so toward strangers and without being rewarded. However, the help that seems intrinsically motivated at an early age seems to be a struggle for some older children – older children in Western societies are less willing to contribute voluntarily at home. However, cross-cultural research shows that this is not the case in other parts of the world. For example, children in many indigenous communities routinely contribute in household chores by their own initiative. To better understand how these cultural differences might emerge, our study examined video-recordings of 2-3-year-old children’s contributions before and after a meal in two different cultural contexts. A total of 36 families from the kichwa indigenous community in Imbabura (Ecuador) and 36 families in Münster (Germany) participated in the study. Based on an interval-coding approach, we coded children’s helping behavior and parents’ structuring of children’s prosocial participation. Concerning children’s prosocial behavior, we coded (a) toddlers’ spontaneity (spontaneous vs. responsive attempts to help), and the (b) complexity and risk implied in the tasks they helped with. Concerning the way in which parents structure these situations we analyzed (a) requests: occurrence and type (deliberate pleas or assertive requests), (b) guidance during children’s helping: occurrence and type (controlling or trusting guidance), and (c) praise after children’s helping: occurrence, type (autonomous praising directed toward the task’s completion (you did IT great!) or relational praise, where the parent-child emotional relationship was made salient (you are my LOVE!/This is MY son!)), and intensity. Preliminary results showed that indigenous children helped more often, helped in a more spontaneous way, and helped in more complex and risky tasks (implying more skillful participation) than Münster children. Indigenous mothers were more likely to formulate assertive requests whereas Münster mothers were more likely to formulate deliberate pleas. Furthermore, mothers in Imbabura showed more trusting guidance than mothers in Münster and were less likely to correct children’s actions when contributing. Finally, indigenous mothers were more likely to employ relational praising with a higher intensity, whereas Münster mothers were more likely to employ autonomous praising with lower intensity. Overall, our results show that indigenous Ecuadorian children were allowed to contribute more autonomously in mealtime preparations, and their contributions were more intensely acknowledged, than those of the Münster children. These findings show cross-cultural differences in the ways that parents deal with children’s early motivations and attempts to contribute at home, which might have important implications for the developing motivation to contribute prosocially at home. In this regard, the findings might help to explain why older children in many indigenous communities contribute more voluntarily and are more motivated to participate with household chores than many older Western children.

Authors

• Marta Giner Torréns, University of Münster
  Presenting Author

• Andrew Dee Coppens, University of New Hampshire
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joscha Kärtner, University of Münster
  Non-Presenting Author