TY - JOUR
T1 - Infant social interactions with multiple caregivers
T2 - The importance of ethnicity and socioeconomic status
AU - Fouts, Hillary N.
AU - Roopnarine, Jaipaul L.
AU - Lamb, Michael E.
AU - Evans, Melanie
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by funds from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development awarded to Michael E. Lamb. We are grateful to the families who participated in the present study.
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - Most studies of diverse populations of families within the United States have either focused predominantly on ethnicity or socioeconomic status (SES), and those that have examined both ethnicity and SES have noted difficulties in disentangling the effects of SES and ethnicity. In order to achieve a greater understanding of variation in infant experiences with parental and nonparental caregivers in differing socioeconomic and ethnic contexts, 41 infants from African American and 40 infants from European American families of lower and middle SES were observed for 12 hours each in and around their home environments. Ethnic differences were evident in the infants' overall experiences with caregivers, maternal availability, affection, caregiving, and stimulation by nonnuclear relatives; SES differences were identified for maternal and paternal holding, maternal carrying, and paternal caregiving. When caregiver availability was taken into account, variations in interactional and care experiences were predominantly predicted by ethnicity. These results underscore the need to study both ethnicity and socioeconomic variation rather than either one alone. Furthermore, the caregiving behaviors of African American mothers and fathers may be misrepresented when multiple SES contexts are not considered.
AB - Most studies of diverse populations of families within the United States have either focused predominantly on ethnicity or socioeconomic status (SES), and those that have examined both ethnicity and SES have noted difficulties in disentangling the effects of SES and ethnicity. In order to achieve a greater understanding of variation in infant experiences with parental and nonparental caregivers in differing socioeconomic and ethnic contexts, 41 infants from African American and 40 infants from European American families of lower and middle SES were observed for 12 hours each in and around their home environments. Ethnic differences were evident in the infants' overall experiences with caregivers, maternal availability, affection, caregiving, and stimulation by nonnuclear relatives; SES differences were identified for maternal and paternal holding, maternal carrying, and paternal caregiving. When caregiver availability was taken into account, variations in interactional and care experiences were predominantly predicted by ethnicity. These results underscore the need to study both ethnicity and socioeconomic variation rather than either one alone. Furthermore, the caregiving behaviors of African American mothers and fathers may be misrepresented when multiple SES contexts are not considered.
KW - family/child rearing
KW - infant/child cultural psychology
KW - socioeconomic
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U2 - 10.1177/0022022110388564
DO - 10.1177/0022022110388564
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84855612033
SN - 0022-0221
VL - 43
SP - 328
EP - 348
JO - Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
JF - Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
IS - 2
ER -