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Holden E, Buryn-Weitzel JC, Atim S, Biroch H, Donnellan E, Graham KE, Hoffman M, Jurua M, Knapper CV, Lahiff NJ, Marshall S, Paricia J, Tusiime F, Wilke C, Majid A, Slocombe KE. Maternal attitudes and behaviours differentially shape infant early life experience: A cross cultural study. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0278378. [PMID: 36542635 PMCID: PMC9770339 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Early life environments afford infants a variety of learning opportunities, and caregivers play a fundamental role in shaping infant early life experience. Variation in maternal attitudes and parenting practices is likely to be greater between than within cultures. However, there is limited cross-cultural work characterising how early life environment differs across populations. We examined the early life environment of infants from two cultural contexts where attitudes towards parenting and infant development were expected to differ: in a group of 53 mother-infant dyads in the UK and 44 mother-infant dyads in Uganda. Participants were studied longitudinally from when infants were 3- to 15-months-old. Questionnaire data revealed the Ugandan mothers had more relational attitudes towards parenting than the mothers from the UK, who had more autonomous parenting attitudes. Using questionnaires and observational methods, we examined whether infant development and experience aligned with maternal attitudes. We found the Ugandan infants experienced a more relational upbringing than the UK infants, with Ugandan infants receiving more distributed caregiving, more body contact with their mothers, and more proximity to mothers at night. Ugandan infants also showed earlier physical development compared to UK infants. Contrary to our expectations, however, Ugandan infants were not in closer proximity to their mothers during the day, did not have more people in proximity or more partners for social interaction compared to UK infants. In addition, when we examined attitudes towards specific behaviours, mothers' attitudes rarely predicted infant experience in related contexts. Taken together our findings highlight the importance of measuring behaviour, rather than extrapolating expected behaviour based on attitudes alone. We found infants' early life environment varies cross-culturally in many important ways and future research should investigate the consequences of these differences for later development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eve Holden
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
| | | | - Santa Atim
- Budongo Conservation Field Station, Nyabyeya, Uganda
| | - Hellen Biroch
- Budongo Conservation Field Station, Nyabyeya, Uganda
| | - Ed Donnellan
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Kirsty E. Graham
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
| | - Maggie Hoffman
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Michael Jurua
- Budongo Conservation Field Station, Nyabyeya, Uganda
| | | | - Nicole J. Lahiff
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | - Sophie Marshall
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | | | | | - Claudia Wilke
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | - Asifa Majid
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | - Katie E. Slocombe
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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A Systematic Review of Play-Based Interventions Targeting the Social Communication Skills of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Educational Contexts. REVIEW JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s40489-021-00286-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
AbstractChildren with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience social communication difficulties which can be compounded by increased social demands and expectations of the school environment. Play offers a unique context for social communication development in educational settings. This systematic review aimed to synthesize play-based interventions for the social communication skills of children with ASD in educational contexts and identified nine studies. Overall, studies in this review provided a promising evidence base for supporting social communication skills through play in education for children with ASD. The review also highlighted gaps in research on play-based interventions for the social communication skills of children with ASD within naturalistic educational settings.
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Moreno M, Thommen E, Morán E, Guidetti M. Communicative Functions in Children Raised in Three Different Social Contexts in Colombia: The Key Issue of Joint Attention. Front Psychol 2021; 12:642242. [PMID: 34335360 PMCID: PMC8320324 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.642242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2020] [Accepted: 06/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Children’s sociocultural experiences vary around the world. Colombia is a South American country where the differences between socioeconomic statuses (SES) are huge. In this study, through the ECSP-E Scale, translated to Spanish and validated for linguistic and cultural equivalence, the development of three communicative functions was evaluated through an interactive sociopragmatic approach. The participants comprised 36 24-month-old children, raised in three different social contexts in Colombia, with the goal of comparing them across groups of SES. The lowest SES group sample subjects were representative of extreme poverty and members of an ethnic group, the Wayuú. Results for the communicative functions, namely social interaction (SI), joint attention (JA), and behavior regulation (BR), showed that the only function with no significant differences across SES was joint attention. This supports the hypothesis that the development of this function may be universal, in light of the fact that the Wayuú not only differed from other subjects in terms of their socioeconomic status but also in their culture. Higher SES was related to better social interaction, while Low SES was associated with better behavior regulation than their High SES peers. Consequently, results are discussed considering socioeconomic and cultural differences in the development of communication and social interactions, leading us to reexamine the paradigms, theories, and practices that are used when observing children raised in very poor environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mayilín Moreno
- Research Group in Psychology, Cognition, Communication and Development (CCD), Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia
| | - Evelyne Thommen
- Haute École de Travail Social et de la Santé (HETSL), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Elianne Morán
- Research Group in Psychology, Cognition, Communication and Development (CCD), Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia
| | - Michèle Guidetti
- Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie (CLLE), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UT2J, Toulouse, France
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