Examination of Maternal Goals and Beliefs Related to Child Development Among Indian Parents of Toddlers

• In Event: Non-U.S., Majority World parenting

Abstract

Theory and research have shown that parent emotion socialization (ES) practices are strongly associated with and predictive of emotion regulation in children. There has been growing recognition that ES needs to be interpreted within a socio-cultural context. Given that current research has primarily been conducted in Western cultures, it is critical to examine parent ES among Eastern cultures. To date, the seven studies that have looked at parent ES practices in India have only examined practices among parents of older children and adolescents. As such, the current project sought to understand parents’ beliefs and goals related to child development among parents of toddlers in India compared to beliefs and goals endorsed by parents from Western cultural backgrounds.

Participants included 70 parent-toddler dyads in the United States (US; New York; n = 36) and India (Chennai, n = 34). Mothers and their 2 to 3-year-olds completed a two-hour at-home visit that included parents interacting with their children during ecologically valid situations (free play, structured play, clean up, and book reading). This was followed by semi-structured interviews about parents’ goals for the completed activities and their views on parenting and on children’s emotional and social development in general. Additionally, parents completed a retrospective think-aloud interview where they watched a replay of their recorded interactions with their child and explained their thoughts, feelings, and goals for their actions during the interaction tasks. This provided parents with the chance to reflect on their personal motivations for their behavior more accurately compared to plain reflection. Parenting goals and beliefs were determined using qualitative thematic coding during the semi-structured interview and retrospective think-aloud.

Several parental goals and objectives were identified, including their child’s development of independence and autonomy, learning of new material, child self-discovery, fostering child creativity, spending time with their child, having fun, and their child’s achievement in the future. Of these goals, parents from the US and India significantly differed in terms of frequency and proportion of the goal endorsed for a) development of independence and autonomy (z=2.70, p=.007), where 76% of parents from the US endorsed this goal, and this was significantly more often, compared to 43% of parents in India, b) for their child to have fun (z=2.97, p=.003), which was endorsed more frequently by parents in India (77%) compared to US parents (41%), and c) future achievement (z=5.09, p<.001), which was endorsed frequently by parents in India (53%) with no parents in the US endorsing future achievement as a goal. With regards to a parents’ role, parents in India differed significantly from parents in the US on beliefs about whether their child or the parent should take the lead during parent-child interactions and activities (z=4.23, p=.015). Specifically, 27% of parents in India stated that the parent should lead the interaction, compared to 5% of parents in the US. These findings provide a better understanding of culture-specific parenting goals and beliefs, which provides insight into the functionality and adaptability of these practices, and thus intervention targets to improve child development.

Authors

• Delshad Shroff, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  Presenting Author

• Rosanna Breaux, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University