Slide 1
18—Culture
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Culture and Children’s Development
Socioeconomic Status and Poverty
Ethnicity
Technology
Summary
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Slide 2
Culture and Children’s
Development
• The Relevance of Culture to the Study of
Children
– Culture
• The behavior, patterns, beliefs, and all other
products of a particular group of people that are
passed on from generation to generation.
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 3
Culture and Children’s
Development
• The Relevance of Culture to the Study of
Children (continued)
– Donald Campbell et al. (1976; 1968) note that
people in all cultures tend to
• Believe that what happens in their culture is
“natural” and “correct” and that what happens in
other cultures is “unnatural” and “incorrect”;
• Perceive their customs as universally valid;
• Behave in ways that favor their cultural group;
• Feel hostile toward other cultural groups.
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Slide 4
Culture and Children’s
Development
• The Relevance of Culture to the Study of Children
(continued)
– Ethnocentrism: Favoring one’s own group over other
groups.
– Many assumptions in fields like psychology were
developed in Western cultures, and consequently, the
development of children in Western cultures evolved as
the norm for all children.
• Overgeneralizations about the universal aspects of
children were made based on data and experience in
the middle-socioeconomic status culture of the U.S.
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Slide 5
Culture and Children’s
Development
• Cross-Cultural Comparisons
– Cross-cultural studies
• Studies that compare a culture with one or more
other cultures. Such studies provide information
about the degree to which children’s development is
similar, or universal, across cultures, or the degree to
which it is culture-specific.
• Margaret Mead’s Samoan study and “storm and
stress.”
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Slide 6
Culture and Children’s
Development
• Cross-Cultural Comparisons (continued)
– Individualism and Collectivism
• Individualism gives priority to personal goals
rather than to group goals; it emphasizes values that
serve the self, such as feeling good, personal
distinction and achievement, and independence.
• Collectivism emphasizes values that serve the group
by subordinating personal goals to preserve group
integrity, interdependence of members, and
harmonious relationships.
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Slide 7
Culture and Children’s
Development
Characteristics of Individualistic and
Collectivistic Cultures
• Refer to Figure 18.1
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Slide 8
Culture and Children’s
Development
American and Chinese Self-Conceptions
• Refer to Figure 18.2
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Slide 9
Culture and Children’s
Development
• Cross-Cultural Comparisons (continued)
– Use of Time by Adolescents
– U.S. adolescents spend more time in paid work than
their counterparts in most developed countries.
– Adolescent males in developing countries spend more
time in paid work than adolescent females, who spend
more time in unpaid household labor.
– U.S. adolescents have more discretionary time than
adolescents in other industrialized countries.
– Much of this free time is spent using the media and
engaging in unstructured leisure activities; structured
voluntary activities would be more beneficial.
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 10
Culture and Children’s
Development
Average Daily Time Use of Adolescents in
Different Regions of the World
• Refer to Figure 18.3
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 11
Culture and Children’s
Development
• Cross-Cultural Comparisons (continued)
– Rites of Passage
• Ceremonies or rituals that mark an individual’s
transition from one status to another, especially into
adulthood.
• The absence of clear-cut rites of passage in the
United States makes the attainment of adult status
ambiguous.
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Slide 12
Review and Reflect: Learning
Goal 1
• Discuss the role of culture in children’s
development
– Review
• What is the relevance of culture to the study of
children?
• What are cross-cultural comparisons? Describe
cross-cultural comparisons in a number of areas of
children’s and adolescents’ development.
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 13
Review and Reflect: Learning
Goal 1
– Reflect
• What was the achievement orientation in your
family as you grew up? How did the cultural
background of your parents influence this
orientation?
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Slide 14
Socioeconomic Status and
Poverty
• What Is Socioeconomic Status?
– Socioeconomic status (SES): A grouping of people
with similar occupational, educational, and economic
characteristics.
• Socioeconomic Variations in Families,
Neighborhoods, and Schools
– The families, schools, and neighborhoods of children
have socioeconomic characteristics that can influence
children’s adjustment and development.
– SES differences characterize family life and influence
children’s intellectual orientation and mental health.
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Slide 15
Socioeconomic Status and
Poverty
• Poverty
– The world is a dangerous and unwelcoming place for
too many of America’s youth, especially those whose
families, neighborhoods, and schools are low-income
(Edelman, 1997; Swisher & Whitlock, 2003).
– Compared with white children, ethnic minority children
are more likely to experience persistent poverty over
many years and live in isolated poor neighborhoods
with minimal social support and abundant threats to
positive development (Jarrett, 1995).
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Slide 16
Socioeconomic Status and
Poverty
Percentages of Youth under 18 Who Are
Living in Distressed Neighborhoods
• Refer to Figure 18.4
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Slide 17
Socioeconomic Status and
Poverty
• Poverty (continued)
– Reasons poverty is so high among American
children:
• Economic changes have eliminated goodpaying blue-collar jobs
• More children are living in mother-headed
single-parent families
• Reduced government benefits
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Slide 18
Socioeconomic Status and
Poverty
• Psychological Ramifications of Poverty
– The poor are often powerless and vulnerable to disaster.
– The range of alternatives for the poor is often restricted
with respect to such things as jobs and education.
– Being poor means having less prestige.
– Poor children are more likely to experience physical
punishment and lack of structure at home, violence in
the neighborhood, and domestic violence around them.
– Poor children have less social support, less access to
books and computers, poorer child care, more pollution,
and more dangerous neighborhoods.
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Slide 19
Socioeconomic Status and
Poverty
Percentage of Poor and Middle-Income
Children Exposed to Each of Six Stressors
• Refer to Figure 18.5
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Slide 20
Socioeconomic Status and
Poverty
– Psychological Ramifications of Poverty
(continued)
• Special concern: The high percentage of single mothers
in poverty:
– They are more distressed than their middle-SES
counterparts and often show low support and
nurturance of their children, as well as little
involvement.
– Reasons for their high poverty rate are women’s low
pay, infrequent awarding of alimony payments, and
poorly enforced child support by fathers.
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Slide 21
Socioeconomic Status and
Poverty
• Poverty (continued)
– Countering Poverty’s Effects
• Work-based antipoverty programs for parents are
linked to enhanced school performance and social
behavior of children.
• Two-generation interventions have more positive
effects on parents than they do on children, and
children are more likely to benefit in terms of
physical health rather than cognitive gains.
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 22
Review and Reflect: Learning
Goal 2
• Describe how socioeconomic status and
poverty impact children’s lives
– Review
• What is socioeconomic status?
• What are some socioeconomic variations in
families, neighborhoods, and schools?
• What characterizes children living in poverty?
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 23
Review and Reflect: Learning
Goal 2
– Reflect
• What would you label the socioeconomic status of
your family as you grew up? How do you think the
SES status of your family influenced your
development?
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Slide 24
Ethnicity
• Ethnicity
– The characteristics rooted in cultural heritage,
including nationality, race, religion, and
language.
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Slide 25
Ethnicity
• Immigration
– Relatively high rates of minority immigration
are contributing to the growth in the proportion
of ethnic minorities in the U.S. population
(Cushner, McClelland, & Safford, 2003;
McLoyd, 2000; Padillo & Perez, 2003;
Phinney, 2003).
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Slide 26
Ethnicity
• Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status
– Much of the research on ethnic minority children has
failed to tease apart the influences of ethnicity and
socioeconomic status (SES), and the interaction of the
two can exaggerate the negative influence of ethnicity.
• Differences and Diversity
– For too long, differences between minority groups and
whites were conceptualized as deficits or inferior
characteristics on the part of the ethnic minority group.
– The current emphasis underscores the strengths of
various minority groups (Quintana, 2004).
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Slide 27
Ethnicity
• Prejudice, Discrimination, and Bias
– Prejudice
• An unjustified negative attitude toward an individual
because of the individual’s membership in a group.
– The “browning” of Americans portends heightened
racial/ethnic prejudice and conflict (McLoyd, 1998).
– Although progress has been made in ethnic minority
relations, discrimination and prejudice still exist.
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Slide 28
Ethnicity
• Assimilation and Pluralism
– Assimilation
• The absorption of ethnic minority groups into the
dominant group, which often means the loss of some
or virtually all of the behavior patterns and cultural
values that set the ethnic minority group apart from
the dominant culture.
– Pluralism
• The coexistence of distinct ethnic and cultural
groups in the same society.
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Slide 29
Ethnicity
• Assimilation and Pluralism (continued)
– One way to resolve value conflicts about
sociocultural issues is to redefine them and
think about them in innovative ways (Sue,
1990).
• The United States and Canada: Nations with Many
Cultures
– The United States and Canada have been and continue
to be countries with diverse ethnic groups.
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Slide 30
Review and Reflect: Learning
Goal 3
• Explain how ethnicity is linked to children’s
development
– Review
• How does immigration influence children’s
development?
• How are ethnicity and socioeconomic status related?
• What is important to know about differences and
diversity?
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Slide 31
Review and Reflect:
Learning Goal 3
– Review (continued)
• How are prejudice, discrimination, and bias
involved in children’s development?
• What are assimilation and pluralism? How have
attitudes toward each changed in recent years?
• How are the United States and Canada nations of
blended cultures?
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Slide 32
Review and Reflect:
Learning Goal 3
– Reflect
• No matter how well intentioned children are, their
life circumstances likely have given them some
prejudices. If they don’t have prejudices toward
people with different cultural and ethnic
backgrounds, other kinds of people may bring out
prejudices in them.
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Slide 33
Review and Reflect:
Learning Goal 3
– Reflect (continued)
• For example, prejudices can be developed about
people who have certain religious or political
conventions, people who are unattractive or too
attractive, people with a disability, and people in a
nearby town. As a parent or teacher, how would you
attempt to reduce children’s prejudices?
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Slide 34
Technology
• Media Use
– Although media use by children and adolescents varies
by age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and
intelligence, the mass media play important roles in the
lives of U.S. children and adolescents.
– The average child and adolescent in a recent study
(Rideout, Roberts, & Foehr, 2005) spent more than 44
hours a week with electronic media, particularly
watching TV and listening to the radio and CDs, tapes,
or MP3 players.
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Slide 35
Technology
Hours per Day Spent by U.S. 8- to 18-YearOlds Using Various Media
• Refer to Figure 18.6
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Slide 36
Technology
• Television
– Television’s Many Roles
• Television can be a positive influence on children’s
development by increasing their information about
the world beyond their immediate environment and
by providing models of prosocial behavior.
• Television can be a negative influence on children’s
development by taking them away from their
homework, making them passive learners, teaching
them stereotypes, providing violent models of
aggression, and presenting them with unrealistic
views of the world.
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Slide 37
Technology
• Television (continued)
– Television, Violent Video Games, and Aggression
• Exposure to violence on television in childhood is
related to aggression in adolescence and adulthood.
• The link between TV violence and aggression in
children is influenced by children’s aggressive
tendencies and their attitudes toward—and exposure
to—violence.
• Violent video games are also related to aggressive
and delinquent behavior.
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Slide 38
Technology
• Television (continued)
– Prosocial Behavior
• Television can teach children that it is better to
behave in positive, prosocial ways than in negative,
antisocial ways.
• Aimee Leifer (1973) demonstrated that television is
associated with prosocial behavior in young
children.
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Slide 39
Technology
• Television (continued)
– Television and Sex
• Although a special concern is the way sex is
portrayed on television and the influence this can
have on adolescents’ sexual attitudes and behaviors,
adolescents’ behavior depends on many other
factors.
• Many adolescents learn positive behaviors from
television viewing, such as how to say no in a sexual
situation in which they feel uncomfortable and how
to talk with a partner about safer sex.
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Slide 40
Technology
• Television (continued)
– Television and Cognitive Development
• Children bring various cognitive skills and abilities to their
television viewing experience (Rabin & Dorr, 1995).
• In general, television is not related to children’s creativity but
is negatively related to mental ability and reading achievement,
and exposure to aural or printed media does more than
television to enhance children’s verbal skills, especially their
expressive language; but educational programming can
promote creativity and imagination.
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Slide 41
Technology
• Computers and the Internet
– The Internet
• The core of computer-mediated communication, the
Internet connects thousands of computer networks,
providing an incredible array of information, and
often the Internet has more current, up-to-date
information than books.
• Despite its potential for increasing education
opportunities, the Internet also has limitations and
dangers and parents need to monitor their children’s
Internet use.
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Slide 42
Technology
• Computers and the Internet (continued)
– Technology and Education
• A concern is whether increased use of computers in
homes and schools will widen the learning gap
between rich and poor and between different ethnic
groups (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2002).
• Other elements in addition to technology that
improve a child’s ability to learn are vision and
support from educational leaders, educators skilled
in the use of technology for learning, access to
technologies, and an emphasis on the child as an
active, constructivist learner.
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Slide 43
Technology
Percentage of U.S. 15- to 17-Year-Olds
Engaging in Different Online Activities
• Refer to Figure 18.7
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Slide 44
Technology
Daily Computer Use by Children and
Adolescents in Different Socioeconomic
Groups
• Refer to Figure 18.8
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Slide 45
Review and Reflect:
Learning Goal 4
• Summarize the influence of technology on
children’s development
– Review
• What role do mass media play in the lives of
children and adolescents?
• How does television influence children’s
development?
• What roles do computers and the Internet play in
children’s development?
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 46
Review and Reflect:
Learning Goal 4
– Reflect
• How much television did you watch as a child?
What effect do you believe it has had on your
development?
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Slide 47
Summary
• Culture refers to the behavior patterns, beliefs, and
all other products of a particular group of people
that are passed on from generation to generation.
• If the study of children is to be a relevant
discipline in the twenty-first century, there will
have to be increased attention to culture.
• Cross-cultural comparisons compare one culture
with one or more other cultures, which provides
information about the degree to which
characteristics are universal or culture-specific.
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 48
Summary
• Socioeconomic status (SES) is the grouping
of people with similar occupational,
educational, and economic characteristics.
• The families, neighborhoods, and schools of
children have SES characteristics that are
related to the child’s development.
• Poverty is defined by economic hardship.
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 49
Summary
• Ethnicity is based on cultural heritage, nationality
characteristics, race, religion, and language.
• Too often researchers have not teased apart ethnic
and socioeconomic status effects when studying
ethnic minority children.
• Recognizing differences in ethnicity is an
important aspect of getting along with others in a
diverse, multicultural world.
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 50
Summary
• Prejudice is an unjustified negative attitude toward
an individual because of the individual’s
membership in a group.
• For many years, assimilation (the absorption of
ethnic groups into the dominant group, which
often means the loss of some or virtually all of the
behavior patterns and values of the ethnic minority
group’s culture) was thought to be the best course
for American society, but pluralism (the
coexistence of distinct ethnic and cultural groups
in the same society) is increasingly advocated.
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 51
Summary
• The United States and Canada have been
and continue to be a great receiver of ethnic
immigrants. This has resulted in the United
States and Canada being nations with many
cultures.
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Slide 52
Summary
• There are large individual variations in
media use by children and adolescents, but
the average U.S. 8- to 18-year-old spends
almost 6-1/2 hours per day using electronic
media, with the most hours spent watching
television.
• Children and adolescents are rapidly
increasing the time they spend online.
McGraw-Hill
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Slide 53
Summary
• Although television can have a negative influence
on children’s development by taking them away
from homework, making them passive learners,
teaching them stereotypes, and presenting them
with unrealistic views of the world, television also
can have positive influences by presenting
motivating educational programs, increasing
children’s information beyond their immediate
environment, and providing models of prosocial
behavior.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..
Slide 54
Summary
• TV violence is not the only cause of children’s
aggression, but it can induce aggression and
antisocial behavior.
• A special concern is the way sex is portrayed on
television and the influence this can have on
adolescents’ sexual attitudes and behaviors.
• TV viewing is negatively related to children's
verbal skills and creativity.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..
Slide 55
Summary
• Today’s children are experiencing a technological
revolution through the dramatic increase in the use
of computers and the Internet.
• Special concerns are the difficulty parents have
monitoring the information their children are
accessing and whether increased use of technology
will widen the learning gap between rich and poor
and between different ethnic groups.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved..