Child rearing practices in immigrant groups

Most studies o f the adaptation of early caregiving among migrants have focused on health issues. Mother-infant interaction was examined as part of a longitudinal study undertaken by Pomerleau, Malcuit, and Sabatier (1991) o f Québécois, Vietnamese, Haitian mothers and infants living in Montreal. Like the studies o f Caudill and

Weinstein (1969) and Richman et al (1992), the study did not explicitly look at feeding, but it is mentioned in the context o f child rearing goals. The study examined three clusters o f variables:

• The physical and social environment provided for the child, as defined by the toys and the space made available (room, play area), infant furniture and the social density o f the household.

• The mother's perceptions and beliefs concerning infant development, examined by questionnaire

• Mother-infant interaction patterns observed in a semi-structured context at three time points: 3.5, 6 and 9 months o f age.

Both parents were o f the same ethnic origin and bom in their home country.

The study found that the social and physical context of the infant's life was different in the immigrant and Québécois groups and linked the differences to the lower affluence and social isolation that is common among immigrant groups. Many o f the Vietnamese and Haitians lived within an extended family, and although there were more opportunities to interact with familiar adults, the infants generally went out o f the home less and encountered less novelty in their environment. The Québécois, like the American mothers in the study by Caudill and Weinstein (1969) cited earlier, geared their children's environment to promote early independence; in this study, this was observed in the encouragement given to the infants to play by themselves.

Different values and beliefs were revealed during the interviews regarding the developmental timetable of the infant. As Keller et al's (1984) comparison of German and Costa Rican mothers revealed differing maternal expectation, so this study identified different estimates o f the infant's timetable for achieving milestones. The Québécois mothers anticipated relatively earlier emergence o f specific infant competencies, related to perceptual and developmental capacities, than either the Vietnamese or Haitian. Both the Vietnamese and Haitian mothers estimated that they

would talk to the child, tell stories and leave the baby to take the bottle alone and eat unaided at an earlier age than the Québécois.

Pomerleau et al found a number o f other similarities and some differences between the Vietnamese and Haitian mothers. Each of these groups had its own distinct way o f raising children and its own vision of what their education should aim at, and these were evident during the structured observations of the mothers and infants. The Vietnamese valued social conformity and carefully supervised their babies' actions in order to control each of their movements. Haitian mothers were less controlling in this domain and the Québécois the least.

The mother-infant interaction was observed in a learning context where mothers were asked to teach four different tasks to their infants (maternal years o f education were matched across group). Four behavioural categories (demonstration, static restraint, stimulation and facilitation) distinguished cultural groups at two ages, but only two showed relative cultural stability. Demonstration behaviours were

predominantly utilised by Québécois mothers with their 6-month old infants, and by Québécois and Haitian mothers with their 9-month-olds. The Vietnamese used this type o f teaching strategy the least and were most likely to use static restraint at all three time points. .

Does the process of migration and acculturation modify parental expectation about the stage of child development? Hopkins and Westra (1989) studied Jamaican

mothers living in Great Britain and found that their expectations o f the attainment o f major motor milestones, such as sitting and walking, remained basically unchanged by the process of immigration. Jamaican mothers gave earlier estimates than English mothers for the ages at which these abilities should be acquired, and the difference in developmental expectation was matched by the infant's developmental outcome. The Jamaican mothers valued the achievement of sitting alone because it was

regarded as "an essential element in the training of children to become polite

adults"(p. 387). Jamaican mothers found it much more difficult to estimate crawling age, because, Hopkins and Westra suggest, crawling was not encouraged but

regarded as "a hazardous and non-human form of behaviour".

Hopkins and Westra suggestions support the opinion that traditional naïve theories of childcare and development are resistant to the social changes involved in

immigrating to another culture. However, even though the representations and conceptions o f children and child development may remain relatively unchanged, certain childcare practices, particularly those to do with infant feeding, do appear to change with migration (Goel, 1981; Harris, Armstrong, Ali and Loynes, 1983; Jivani

1978; Evans, Walpole, Qureshi, Memon and Bverly-Jones, 1976).

Rabain-Jamain and Womham, (1993) suggest that an immigrant mother finds herself in a complex situation where she must adapt to the new living conditions and

assimilate the values of the host society while at the same time transmitting the traditional values o f her own culture. Placed in an unfamiliar society mothers can give up certain practices which they feel no longer have any social justification, or may even be perceived as negative in the host society.