This innovative text explains child development from a cross-cultural perspective. Using examples to illuminate key points, it considers a range of topics from attachment to identity and communication to socialization. This is essential reading for social workers at all stages of their careers who want to develop culturally sensitive practice.

Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development was the first volume to analyze minority child development by comparing minority children to children in their ancestral countries, rather than to children in the host culture. It was a ground-breaking volume that not only offered an historical reconstruction of the cross-cultural roots of minority child development, but a new cultural-historical approach to developmental psychology as well. It was also one of the best attempts to develop guidelines for building models of development that are multicultural in perspective, thus challenging scholars across the behavioral sciences to give more credence to the impact of culture on development and socialization in their respective fields of work. A true classic, Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development will remain an essential resource for any scholar who is interested in minority child development and engages in cross-cultural research and multidisciplinary methodologies.

This book addresses cultural variability in children’s social worlds, examining the acquisition, development, and use of culturally relevant social competencies valued in diverse cultural contexts. It discusses the different aspects of preschoolers’ social competencies that allow children – including adopted, immigrant, or at-risk children – to create and maintain relationships, communicate, and to get along with other people at home, in daycare or school, and other situations. Chapters explore how children’s social competencies reflect the features of the social worlds in which they live and grow. In addition, chapters examine the extent that different cultural value orientations manifest in children’s social functioning and escribes how parents in autonomy-oriented cultures tend to value different social skills than parents with relatedness or autonomous-relatedness orientations. The book concludes with recommendations for future research directions. Topics featured in this book include: Gender development in young children. Peer interactions and relationships during the preschool years. Sibling interactions in western and non-western cultural groups. The roles of grandparents in child development. Socialization and development in refugee children. Child development within institutional care. Children’s Social Worlds in Cultural Context is a valuable resource for researchers, clinicians/practitioners, and graduate students in developmental psychology, child and school psychology, social work, cultural anthropology, family studies, and education.

Child care is an integral part of the web of influences and experiences that shape children's development. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that covers both historic and economic contexts, this unique book characterizes child care in 18 countries on five continents. Specific historical roots and the current social contexts of child care are delineated in industrialized as well as in developing countries. To increase the depth of crosscultural analysis and integration, commentators from countries and disciplines other than the authors comment on the issues raised in each chapter.

The updated second edition of this popular resource offers practical advice for working with children and families of diverse heritage. With insight from their own racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, the chapter authors contribute wisdom about the influence of different cultures on people's beliefs, values, and behaviors. Their knowledge helps professionals learn how to embrace diversity in intervention services and foster respectful and effective interactions with people of many cultures. Widely used in preservice and in-service settings, Developing Cross-Cultural Competence is invaluable as a textbook in graduate and undergraduate courses in general and special education, social work, child development, psychology, family studies, and public health and ideal as a guide for human services professionals, home visitors, paraprofessionals, and program administrators who work with children with disabilities.

This book explores how social workers incorporate issues of culture when evaluating the parenting competence of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) parents and highlights the gap in how social workers assess safe parenting in BAME families. Drawing on a study that combined a phenomenological research philosophy with frame analysis, the book explores how culturally informed parenting is construed by social workers and BAME parents. It argues that effective assessment of the parenting competence of BAME parents is predicated on understanding how culture frames perspectives of what constitutes competent parenting. Throughout the eight chapters, the book moves the debate within the literature away from the universality of parenting concepts to a focus on a deeper understanding of culture. It highlights the influence that culture has on the way that BAME parents socialise their children, as well as how parents and social workers conceptualise safe parenting. The result is useful insights into the cultural context of parenting. The book will be of interest to all scholars and students of social work, childhood studies, sociology, and social policy, as well as social work professionals more broadly.

Bridging Cultures in Early Care and Education: A Training Module is a resource designed to help pre-service and in-service early childhood educators, including infant-toddler caregivers, understand the role of culture in their programs. It is also intended for professionals who work with children and their families in a variety of other roles, such as social workers, special educators, and early interventionists, and for use in college courses focused on early childhood education and child development. The module explains and illustrates how early childhood educators can use the organizing concepts of individualism and collectivism as a means of understanding cultural conflict and difference. These concepts have been shown to be highly useful in improving home-school understanding across cultures. Based on real-life examples of cultural dilemmas in early care and education settings, participants engage the concepts of individualism and collectivism to solve a variety of scenarios in a dynamic and engaging manner. *Chapter 1 introduces the Bridging Cultures for Early Care and Education approach, provides a brief history, and explains the training module. It presents the conceptual framework of individualism and collectivism, which is at the heart of the training. *Chapter 2 provides the information needed for a two-hour workshop, including a script and notes to the facilitator. The script is not meant to be read word for word. Rather, it is offered as a guide, based on a pilot-tested approach. Appendices at the end of the book contain transparency masters for the overheads referenced in the script, and masters for suggested handouts. *Chapter 3 offers ideas for augmenting the basic two-hour training by expanding it over a longer time period. It also identifies additional diversity resources that can complement the Bridging Cultures training. *Appendices providing additional information, data, and bibliographic resources are included. This module originated as part of the Bridging Cultures Project at WestEd--a nonprofit research, development, and service agency working with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children, youth, and adults.