A comparative culture study of mothers' attitudes

DIFFERENTtELLE PSYCHOLOGIE DER JUGENDZEIT 291

et sur les diff6rences qu'ils estiment exister entre les deux gdn6rations. Les diff6rences que nous avons pu constater entre nos groupcs vont

dans le m~me sens que les rdsultats prdc6demment analyses: ce sont les lyc6ens, et surtout les plus jeunes d'entre eux, qui estiment, plus frd- quemment que les autres adolescents, qu'il existe effectivement tin ~ loss6 des gdn6rations )>. C'est chez eux aussi, et dans une moindre proportion chez les normaliens, que nous trouvons beaucoup plus quc chcz les apprentis et les salari6s, la tendance fi valoriser les jeunes par rapport aux adultes.

Une analyse des r6ponses en fonction des professions des parents ncus montre que cette attitude de valorisation des jeunes ct de dfvalo- risation des adultes se rencontre le plus souvent dans les classes moyennes (petits fonctionnaires, employ6s, petits commergants) suivies des professions libSrales et aisdes, et le moins souvent dans les families ouvri~res. La part prdponddrante que prend dans l'opposition de l'adoles- cent au monde adulte son opposition au monde familial est r6vdl6e par des liaisons qui existent entre cette r~action et des attitudes plus criti- ques h l'6gard des parents.

Ainsi l 'ensemble de nos rdsultats nous conduit fi conclure que ]es modalitds psychologiques d'insertion de l'adolescent dans la vie adulte sont d6termin6es, pour une large part, par les modalit~s sociales de cette insertion.

D i s k u s s i o n

A C O M P A R A T I V E C U L T U R E STUDY O F M O T H E R S '

A T I ' I T U D E S

ELIZABETH THOMA New York, N.Y. (USA)

The purpose of this study was to investigate a specific calture construct pattern as seen in two communities. While the concept of crosscultural comparison is by no nleans new, there ]lave been few investigations em- ploying a combination of the two disciplines, clinical psychology and social anthropology. This limited perspective on the part of psychology may have interfered with better understanding of the role -of cultural differences in personality development. Improved understanding of such

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differences is especially important for all who deal with s!gnificant inter- personal relationships, especially in the areas of education, communi- cation, and psychotherapy.

In their interdisciplinary studies Kardiner and Liaton found that certain culturally patterned methods of child-rearing t)ecome internalized as atti- tudes common to the people of that society. It is primary institutions such as these that are responsible for the basic personality of tile society. This basic personality in turn determines the kinds of secondary institutions, such as educational, religious, economic, and social-systems. The dynamic nature of this process is at once apparent when We recognize that second- ary institutions determine the ensuing primary institutions of a given society.

Since maternal attitudes are an important a~pectof the so-called primary institutions, it is useful to find out more about these attitudes. Such influences represent learning that is emotional and indirect rather than intellectual and direct. How mothers feel about their children is of speciai concern to students of child development; comparative studies help us distinguish between universals and culturally patterned responses.

This report deals only with the degree to which mothers tend to accept their children recognized as deviant in terms of their respective societies. The populations were obtained in suburban Djakarta (Kebajoran) and suburban New York. Certain references to a comparable field study in- volving a Norwegian population will be included.

The methodology was taken from clinical psychology and social anthro- pology. The research populations consisted of thirty-two mothers in each subculture. Each mother had a child between eight and ten years old identified by the school authorities as having an emotional problem. The subjects were accepted consecutively provided they satisfied the socio-eco- nomic-educational criteria established by the investigator for an earlier (Norwegian) study and agreed upon.by the Indonesian psychologists who served as consultants. The mothers were seen in the schools attended by their children.

Since the problem was limited to culturally patterned response to devia- tion per se, no attempt was made to interpret the presenting symptoms; these could all be grouped under academic failure, emotional instability, social inadequacy, or some combination of the three. Mothers whose children were found to have severe medical/physical problems in addition to their emotional difficulties were not included; those whose children appeared to be psychotic or suffering from primary retardation were not accepted as subjects.

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Review of the literature yielded no instruments regarded as appropriate for measuring the variable in different cultures. Accordingly a "situational test" (Cronbach) comprising a semi-structured interview and a projective picture was used. Developed and validated for a previous cross-cultural study by tile investigator, this device was approved as having face validity by three Indonesian authorities. The seven interview "'questions" are actu- ally cues that have been found useful in eliciting significant responses. In the picture the central figure is a young child having what is commonly known as a temper tantrum. He is surrounded by five adults, of both sexes. The data consist of verbatim responses to this situational test.

Examination of the data in an earlier (Norwegian-United States) study revealed the attitude under investigation, maternal acceptance, or uncon- ditional love for the child, as having twelve components:

I. Initial insight 2. Comparison with others 3. Direction of harm 4. Expressed anxiety 5. Source of criticism 6. Assumption of responsibi!ity 7. Direction of affect 8. Mother 's goal (for child) 9, Mother's real image (of child)

10. Warmth expressed 11. Identification 12. Effect of "others"

Based upon these components, or signs, as indicators of acceptance or the opposite a rating scheme was drawn up. Usefulness of this device was corroborated by the satisfactory index of agreement (after Shapiro) of the four experts who evaluated it: With the Indicators as criteria, three clinical psychologists (American) rated the interview and picture responses on a five-point scale. The high correlation among ratings points to the consistency of their judgments:

The results from the combined ratings show that the Indonesian mothers in the sample are more accepting of their children recognized as having emotional problems than tim United States mothers. The total difference is significantly better than the one percent levek Item analysis of the twelve components of the variable show that on three of them (Expressed Anxiety, Source of Criticism, Direction of Affect) the differ- ences are most significant; that is, the Indonesian mother r@resented by

294 "rnl~MA 7

the sample is less threatened by the perceived criticism of others and her feelings around the problem are invested in the child rather than in herself. It may be noted that a comparable cross-cultural study pointed to similar attitudes in Norwegian mothers, that is in contrast with the United States group they were significantly more accepting of their deviant children, less threatened by the criticism of others.

It is useful to consider the three Indicators that produced the most significant differences in the present study. Indicators ~ 4 and 5 deal with responses to the complex question, "Does this problem bother you very much? Have other people crJtized it? Who?" Responses were rated in the direction of acceptance if in the negative or l; zhe subject offered as the reason for her reduced anxiety the fact she had sought help. Among the many qualitative differences may be noted that while to the Western (i.e., U.S. and Norwegian) mother "help" implied outside professional consul- tation, to the Indonesian it often meant tirakat, or the practice of certain forms of abstention believed to enhance her communication with the child. As for "'Source of Criticism" mothers who are more concerned about the reactions of outsiders than with their own relationship toward the child are presumed to be controlled by stares "~ similar values. If she believes her child is perceived by others as "bad ' ,:~,,~h a mother feels the outgroup regards her also as bad; "he effect of adverse criticism upon her self-image is probably so paralyzing that she cannot accept the child, much less become involved in changing him. For both these Indicators three times as many Indonesian as American mothers reported they were aware of no criticism; in the Norwegian-U.S. study the ratio was two to one. Whether this means that Indonesians (and Nor~vegians) as repre- sented by the samples are less prone to verbalize criticism, or less threat- ened by such remarks and therefore tend to disregard them, or perhaps more defensive of their anxieties cannot be determined from the data.

Indicator ~ 7 deals with responses to the question, "How does this make you feel?" According to the rationale, feeling sorry or the equivalent for the child in contrast with herself is a sign that the mother is able to regard him as a separate person; feeling sorry for herself shows she regards him as the source of her own angry or inadequate feelings and thus as a hate instead of a love object. Since by inference that which is a source of anger or resentment tends to be denied, negated, or cast away, the mother who has such a perception of her child is non-accepting, The indonesian mothers tended to feel compassion for the child in contrast with the resentment or embarrassment experienced by many American subjects.

According to six of the remaining Indicators the Indonesian mothers

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were more aceepting of their children regarded as deviates in behavior; according to the ~emaining three the differences between the groups were not statistically significant.

As for qualitative differences, many were found which lead to specu- lation concerning relationships between child-rearing practices and the secondary institutions of Indonesia. For example, if a man known to have strong kabatinan, or insight, has said of a new-born child that he will be stubborn or "wild", his mother will not be motivated to seek outside help to change him for to do so would be to rebel against fate and thus violate certain religious principles. On the other hand, from about the age of twelve adat, roughly translated "group conscience," takes over aml by acting as a strong social pressure appears to reduce the need for indi- vidual control. The tendency to pace high value upon the child as a person, together with the basic personality traits of innerdircctedness and complacency may be seen in the emerging social and educational systems of Indonesia.

Findings from this study indicate that the Indonesian mothers are sig- nificantly more accepting of their children presenting behavior deviant from the norm than are American mothers in a corresponding subculture. Results from such studies have implications for educators and others concerned with planning for change. Knowledge of the dynamics under- lying cultural differences is useful in anticipating the effects upon perso- ality of new environmental demands. Moreover, the critical factors that lead to a society's accepting (i.e., learning) one innovation and rejecting another are apparently related in some way to the congehiality or "fit" of the new concept irt relation to the basic personality of the society.

T H E C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S O F RUIL~L A N D URBAN

A D O L E S C E N T S IN E G Y P T

A. l-l. EL KOUSSY Cairo (Egypt)

This is a preliminary study which was originally intended to, give us indications to help carry out further researches on the characteristics of adolescent boys and girls in rural and urban areas in Egypt. Our objective was also to find out if on the whole the differences existed among adolescent groups before and after the age of 15-16.

The data collected were written material given in answer to four written