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 by Marc H. Bornstein, the chapters presented compare microanalytic approaches to three topical issues in each of two cultural groups in each country. The three main 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 those 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 volume offers insights into the basics of parenting and infancy from both intra-cultural and cross-cultural perspectives. Each chapter is authored by a contributor native to the country examined, guaranteeing an authentic perspective 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.