Cultural Influences on Preschoolers:
I found this really interesting article on how the culture of children and their parents affects the abilities of children to adapt and learn in a new environment. There were a lot of really cool things discussed in the article, such as how sometimes the enculturation (resisting adaptation to new cultures) may serve as a protective factor for children. As you can assume, this is a very controversial statement. I suppose in some cultures if their beliefs are strong it could cause the children to grow to be strong, independent people. At the same time, It's hard to see how an encultured family could thrive in a different culture (this study was done in NYC). If someone really cares about their children, wouldn't you want do to everything in your power (even if that means adapting and implementing acculturation, which is adapting culture into your children's lives) to improve their chances of success in learning? The study actually found that the type of people who were likely to sign up for the study would be disproportionally accultured, considering they had to speak English, send their children to English speaking schools, and volunteer for a study run by an American Institution. It would be interesting to see the real effects on these factors using participants who are more encultured, although I feel it would be nearly impossible to reach people who are highly encultured. At the same time (this may sound mean) if someone is so resistant to change in culture, why would you move to America in the first place? I realize that sometimes people don't have a choice, but I feel that NYC, of all places, is probably the biggest melting pot in the world. You would think that people who reside there understand that NYC is a good place to experience new cultures, as well as implementing your own culture to new people.
I think culture in general is a very hard topic to study, especially with all of the new cultures emerging. Motivational factors behind some of the rituals and beliefs that cultures have are interesting, yet very challenging, to study. I think that is why it is so important to look at these differences when we can; without over generalizing all research to a certain race or ethnicity, because many times these lines can be crossed in incorrect ways.
Here's the link, be sure to click "PDF":
Leave a comment