Parenting, Infancy, Culture

This vital volume advances an in-depth understanding of how parenting infants in the first year of life is similar and different in two contrasting contexts in each of five countries-Argentina, Belgium, Israel, Italy, and the United States-providing a global understanding of parenting across cultures. Edited and written by Marc H. Bornstein and his country collaborators, the chapters presented compare microanalytic approaches to three topical issues in each of two cultural groups in each country. The three issues concern, first, how often and how long mothers in each of the groups in each of the countries engage in basic parenting practices, and how often and how long infants in the same groups engage in different behaviors. Second, whether the maternal parenting practices are organized in any way and whether those infant behaviors are organized in any way. And, third, whether those maternal parenting practices and those infant behaviors are interrelated. Thus, this book offers insights into the basics of parenting and infancy from both intra-cultural and cross-cultural perspectives. Each country chapter is co-authored by a contributor native to the country examined, ensuring an authentic cultural perspectives on parenting and infancy. Together, the chapters provide a broader sample that is more generalizable to a wider range of the world's population than is typical in most parenting and infancy research. Parenting, Infancy, Culture is essential reading for researchers and students of parenting, psychology, human development, family studies, sociology, and cultural anthropology as well as professionals working with families.

Marc H. Bornstein holds positions at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and UNICEF. He is President Emeritus of the Society for Research in Child Development, Founnding Editor of Parenting: Science and Practice, and Editor Emeritus of Child Development. Bornstein has edited several books, including the five-volume Handbook of Parenting for Routledge.

1. Cultural Approaches to Parenting and Infancy: An Introduction 2. Studying Intra-Cultural and Cross-Cultural Parenting and Infancy: General Methods 3. Argentina: Urban and Rural Parenting and Infancy in a South American Context 4. Belgium: Bilingual and Monolingual Parenting and Infancy 5. Israel: Parenting and Infancy in the City and on Kibbutz 6. Italy: Parenting and Infancy in the Industrialized North and the Agrarian South 7. The United States: Metropolitan and Appalachian Parenting and Infancy 8. Cultural Specificities and Cultural Universals in Parenting and Infancy: Argentina, Belgium, Israel, Italy, and the United States 9. Cultural Approaches to Parenting and Infancy: Some Conclusions