Child Development and Parenting Across Cultures

Please reply to these students posts.
* Please use this source: Chapter 5.
Heine, S. J. (2020). Cultural Psychology (4th ed.). W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
1.
The aspect of development I chose is emotional regulation and expression across cultures. Across cultures there are many different norms that develop specific to that group of people and these serve to teach children what is acceptable as far as emotions and the expression of them. Children learn what is in line with their cultures emotional expression through socialization and their interaction with their parents/caregivers. "People in different cultures tend to hold different views about the value of emotion and how emotion should be experienced, expressed, and regulated." (Yang 2019) The study discusses three ways that parental emotional socialization embeds the cultures norms of emotional regulation upon their children. The first aspect that they found was the level of emotional expression by the parents in front of the children, or modeling. In Western culture the parents were much more expressive with their emotions, particularly positive emotions. This modeling of emotional expression gives the children permission to express their emotions. They were more likely to encourage free expression of emotion in their children than Eastern cultures. Eastern culture values emotional restraint and because of this lack of emotional expression there were more instances of anxiety in their culture. The second aspect they discussed was parent-child conversations about emotions and emotional expression. In Western cultures the parents engaged in "emotional coaching" and this is viewed as a way to help children be in touch with their authentic self and expression. "Emotion coaching usually consists of helping the child label an emotion, explicitly explaining an emotion and its relation to a situation or event, and teaching the child about strategies to deal with an emotion." (Yang 2019) Eastern cultures do not engage in this same type of emotional coaching and instead are more likely to teach rules and regulations that help them maintain their social harmony as a group. The final contributing aspect that was studied was parental reaction to the children's emotions and expression. They found that when a child was shown a supportive reaction to their emotional expression they were more likely to learn healthy emotional regulation skills as compared to those that were given a non-supportive reaction. They found that non-Western cultures were much more likely to use non-supportive reactions than those in Western cultures. "Korean and Asian American parents endorsed more emotion suppression and shaming when responding to their children’s positive and negative emotions." (Yang 2019) These findings are congruent with Eastern cultures being more collectivist and Western being more individualistic. In Western cultures there is value placed on the individual and their unique path in this life including emotional expression. Western culture values authenticity and individuality so it makes sense that there would be encouragement to help children express their emotions. Eastern culture is collectivist so there is more importance placed upon keeping social harmony and balance as opposed to individual emotional harmony. Emotional restraint is deemed acceptable if expressing their emotions is more likely to disrupt the group even at the expense of the individuals emotional health. "Western researchers describe it as an important developmental milestone when the young toddler begins to establish his or her identity." (Heine 2020) From a young age expression of the self is seen as an important developmental stage in Western culture.
2. 
Adolescent rebellion is the aspect of development that I have chosen to discuss. Being a parent of a nine-year-old learning as much as possible about this topic will be beneficial in the future.
2). “Adolescence has been viewed as an especially violent phase of life” (Heine, 2020). Do Western cultures as well as non-Western cultures teens experience a troubled period of their lives? After reading the article entitled Are Teens Troublemakers Across the World? And the section in our text Adolescent Rebellion this question can be answered a little bit better. In Western cultures, it is very obvious that many teenager's way of life is problematic. From partying, experimenting with drinking and drugs, and doing just about anything that constitutes fun with little to no remorse or concern for the consequences of their actions. “In the West, adolescence is typically described as a chaotic period of “storm and stress” (Heine, 2020). With the help of the ethnographic database, researchers were able to conclude that there are similarities and differences in adolescents from different cultures. A similarity is that the adolescent period is observed by many cultures but the extent to which an adolescent behaves is not consistent with all cultures. “Youth attitudes and behaviors are shaped by many different practices, ideologies, and behaviors around the world and the stage of adolescence varies considerably “ (Schlegel and Barry 1991). In addition to these practices, ideologies, and behaviors hormonal changes are another factor that plays a part in an adolescent’s behavior. Adolescent rebellion exists outside the Western culture but is not a universal phenomenon. Adolescence is not universally associated with violence. “Only 13% of societies expected adolescent boys to occasionally be violent, and only 3% had such expectations for girls” (Heine, 2020). Another difference in adolescent rebellion is how long it lasts. In some cultures like in Kenya adolescent rebellion can carry on into adulthood past the marrying age. It does seem though that as countries are becoming more industrialized there is an increase in adolescent distress. Also, it is evident that in countries where adolescents take on more adult roles and value responsibilities, have a tendency to mature quickly and move past their rebellious stage.
3). The more individualistic the culture (the more private/self-dependent) the more adolescent rebellion is seen and according to our text cultures are becoming more and more individualistic. This is different from the 60’s “Before the 1960s, people were more socially engaged and civically active than they have been in recent decades” (Heine, 2020). Technology, television, secularization, and financial stability, have impacted the increase in individualistic cultures. Collectivistic cultures are the opposite of individualistic cultures. They are more focused on the group rather than the individual. Being self-centered can certainly be a cause of rebellion in adolescence.