Parenting attitudes and beliefs across cultures

Abstract

This article addresses parental attitudes, beliefs, and more generally parental orientations in terms of some topical categories, that is, parenting orientations and culture, parenting orientations and socioeconomic context, parenting orientations and family change, and parenting orientations and culture contact. Although these areas of study overlap to some extent, they provide a systematic framework to address the important and complex issues involved in parenting. Both contextual and universal approaches are pursued to examine differences and commonalities from a global perspective. A great deal of research is reviewed, and theoretical perspectives are put forward to provide insights into parenting attitudes and beliefs across cultures.