Child development and culture

Abstract

Human development occurs in a cultural context. Obvious as this statement may be, its realization in developmental science is far from adequate. Most mainstream research and theory that derives from the Western (particularly American) academic centers and informs the field tends to approach human development in and of its own, without much attention to its cultural aspects. This state of affairs has implications for how child development is construed, how it is assessed, and what is done (if anything) to enhance it. This article presents the current knowledge regarding the interface of culture and child development, with the main processes and dynamics involved, and also provides a brief overview of the scholarship on the subject. The main theoretical conceptualizations regarding child development, as well as their implications in significant spheres of applied fields, are reviewed.