Acculturalisation

Acculturation
Name
Institution
Abstract
Studies have shown that the ages at which parents expect their children to attain certain development milestones vary depending on cultural background. This study explored the influence of culture on child development by analyzing Anglo-Australian mothers (n=40), Anglo-Australian fathers (n=40) and Indian-Australian mothers and their expectation of onset of seven developmental traits in their children. Results obtained that Indian-Australian mothers expected their children to exhibit late expectation in emotional control, Compliance, and self-care. These are traits associated with cultures that embrace individualism like the Australians culture. In the rest, her expectations had no significant difference with the rest of the parents, and in education, her expectations were earlier. Minorities value academics highly as it is viewed as a means of breaking social and structural barriers. This means that they are integrating and interpreting new information depending on the demands of their new surroundings that they want their children to fit in.
Keywords: Anglo-Australian, Indian Australian, Competency, Expectation.
Acculturation
INTRODUCTION
Parenting and culture have a relationship that dates long back in history in social sciences and more so psychology. Childcare givers shape the development young ones through the child-rearing practices they employ in addition to the knowledge, values, goals, and beliefs they impart. They also influence their social skills and wisdom on when to expect specific development milestones Bornstein and Cote (2001).

This development process from the caregiver is called parenting cognitions. Moreover, when experiences of within childcare settings and dwellings are continuous, they tend to induce optimal development. Parenting may also boil down the relationship between the child and its caregiver. Culture personality school of thought prevailed in 1950 and strived to compare child-rearing methods associated with certain culture to a psychoanalytic theory and equate the techniques to personality types from a specific culture. In recent times, adjudging of child rearing techniques has been against set goals by the society. Cultures deviate at the amount of competence an adult pushes the child to achieve, expected age for acquiring a particular skill and the bar set for proficiency of the children according to Hess et al. (1980). Earlier studies have opined to children brought up from less privileged backgrounds with limited education tending to gain more from the disparity in the environment provided the care setting is superior to that provided by the family. It is clear then that there must be a significant relationship between parenting cognitions together with culture and social practices (Bornstein and Lansford, 2010).
An example is how Japanese and American mothers differ on the set of skills they expect to see earlier from their young ones but agree on the overall age of mastery. On the contrary, the Israeli mothers differ among themselves on when to expect mastery depending on their ‘Eastern’ or ‘European’ origin. Mothers from Lebanese origin and those of Australian origin tend to have a bit more relaxed timetables Compared to Haitian and Quebecois mothers those hailing from Vietnam are late in their expectations on the various skills. There are particular aspects of child-rearing replicated across cultures, but theoretical challenge emanates from deciphering these differences against the full knowledge of the specific culture. Individualism and collectivism have emerged as lenses from which cultural differences analyzed. Individualism entails instances where the family bonds tend to be loose leading to each individual taking care of his own self and immediate family. Collectivism cultures are those in which from the onset there is an intertwining of individuals together in strong cohesive groups all through life in a symbiosis of protection and loyalty. Those from individualistic cultures practice autonomy laced with the individual initiative in addition to emotional independence. Characteristics that quite contrast to individuals from collectivist cultures who hold dear emotional dependence and sharing of among other things duties and obligations. The individualism versus collectivism school of thought targeted societal and not individual psychology. There are other dimensions that are along the same line but encompass culture. Examples include the independent versus interdependent perspective of oneself and the relatedness and separateness, which draw a lot from the study of early socialization.
The collectivism versus individualism dimension is on the display as seen when American mothers inculcate early skills like individual action accompanied by standing up for rights and being assertive on issues. On the contrary, Japanese mothers insist on early acquisition of skills like courtesy, submission to adult authority and self-control. On the part of Indian mothers, the maternal expectations tend to delay, and even their Japanese characters start instilling aspects of training earlier than they do.
Multiculturalism in Australia
In terms of the overseas population across Europe Australia ranks the highest with 24% of its population being migrants (Australian Bureau of statistics, 2006). Encouragement of immigrants not to discard their cultural values commenced in 1970. Pervasion of a multicultural environment leads to a social service that is cultural, sensitive and will strive to remain relevant and appropriate (Morrissey, 1997). Due to its modernity and being from the western world makes Australia be associated with individualism. While performing a longitudinal study on Australian minors aged between 4 and 5 years using the Paterson and Sanson’s child-rearing questionnaire, the children were endowed with inductive reasoning, warmth and shied from hostility (Nicholson, Zubrick, Sanson & LSAC Research consortium, 2007). On the other hand, immigrants face challenges upon arrival and when trying to integrate into the host society. The major challenge tends to be balancing and maintenance of ethnic identity while at the same time participating in the host society (Berry, 1997). How seamlessly a family fits into a society and how well the children end up being raised in the host society is pegged on the degree of the parent’s acculturation. Acculturated parents tend to exhibit practices and expectations that are in conformity with that of the host society. Indian migrants represent the fourth largest diaspora community in Australia with a population of 340,604 members (Australian Bureau of statistics, 2006). In 1830 Indian workers arrived in New South Wales and although they might come from the different background, they share similar attitudes and beliefs. They value family interdependence, and they have delayed maternal expectations. They develop close social relationships, interconnectedness and indulges with other people. The Indians reside jointly as an extended family and are patriarchal (Jambunathan and Counselman, 2002). Greater understanding of diverse child-rearing goals is paramount in a multicultural setting.
METHOD
The study involved 40 Anglo-Australian mothers, 40 Anglo-Australian fathers, and 40 Indian-Australian mothers. We did not have data on Indian-Australian fathers. Recruitment of all parents was based on those who had at least one child aged 10 years and below. All the Anglo-Australian fathers and mothers were born in Australia. Recruitment of Indian-Australian mothers was done through community groups and organizations. A Punjabi English bilingual translated the questionnaires used into Punjabi.
RESULTS
The results for the 40 Anglo-Australian mothers, 40 Anglo-Australian fathers and 40 Indian-Australian mothers (data for Indian-Australian fathers has not been collected), on the 7 domains of competency (Education, self-care, peer interaction, communication, emotional control and environmental independence) in the development milestone questionnaires were compared using a series of analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results are presented in table 1. For education, Anglo-Australian fathers, and Anglo-Australian mothers were both significantly later than the Indian-Australian mothers. The Anglo-Australian Mothers and Anglo-Australian fathers were not significantly different
On self-care, Anglo-Australian mothers were significantly earlier than both the Anglo-Australian father and the Indian-Australian mother. Anglo-Australian fathers were not significantly different from Indian-Australian mothers. On the other hand, for compliance Anglo-Australian mothers were significantly earlier than both the Anglo-Australian father and Indian-Australian mother. The latter two were not significantly different from each other. The expectation for peer interaction showed no significant difference between Anglo-Australian mothers, Anglo-Australian fathers, and Indian-Australian mothers. When it came to communication, there was no significant difference between the Anglo-Australian mothers, Anglo-Australian fathers, and Indian-Australian mothers. For emotional control, Anglo-Australian mothers and Anglo-Australian fathers had no significant difference between each other but were both earlier than the Indian-Australian mother. For environmental independence, there was no significant difference between the Anglo-Australian mother, Anglo-Australian father and Indian-Australian mother.
Table 1. Maternal and Paternal age expectancy mean score for seven competencies.
Domain Competencies Anglo-Australian mothers Anglo-Australian fathers Indian-Australian mothers
Education 4.85 4.86 3.79
Self-care 4.60 5.70 5.76
Compliance 4.88 5.86 5.55
Peer interaction 4.92 4.98 5.70
Communication 4.86 4.90 4.98
Emotional control 5.72 5.78 5.00
Environmental independence 8.20 8.41 4.98

DISCUSSION
The study herein was meant to study the relationship between parenting values and behaviors and acculturation among Anglo-Australian mothers, Anglo-Australian fathers and Indian- Australian mothers. The study was carried out in Australia a country that boasts of multiculturalism thus offering a sociopolitical environment where the policies are geared toward the continuation of pluralism. Cultural difference in maternal expectation is blurred in this study. While Australians are thought of as inductive and self-centered, the Indians are characterized by prolonged childhood. Kakar (1978) observed that Indian women tend to give in to their children’s wishes and demand and she prolongs her maternal instincts until past the age the child should have stated being independent. In this study, we see the Indian-Australian mother have an earlier expectation on education as opposed to the Anglo-Australian parents. While analyzing Turkish German mothers, such phenomenon was attributed to the parent giving her child latitude because she has apprehension about that specific domain (Goodnow et al. 1984). They also allow the latitude for the child to acquire skills that they will use in the long term (Leyendeker et al. 2008). Meaning that they have an integrated attitude and through acculturation have adopted some of the host’s characteristics. Indian children due to their less privileged environment are usually late in all the competencies but environment dependence. Curiously in this study, there is no significant difference in the expectation for environmental independence among the three groups meaning that this trait has been lost by the Indian-Australian mother. True to their nature the Anglo-Australian mother has earlier expectations in traits that are expected for societies that practice individualism including compliance, self-care, and emotional control. Acculturation refers to changes in child rearing models that are associated with a specific culture due to proximity to the culture of the host. Proof of acculturation in this study is in a display of loss of Indian expectation of environmental awareness, earlier awareness of education among the Indian-Australian mothers, matching Anglo-Australian parents in peer interaction and communication. The fathers have also been proved to have no expectation instinct like the mother in compliance and self-control abilities that require teaching which is done by the mother mostly since they spend much time with the children does the father. The individualistic nature of the Australians is on display by how early both mother and father expect control of emotion. The interdependence nature of the Indian has been lost by acculturation in this study. The issue of environmental awareness could be because of loss of joint living that Indians consider as ideal Nanda (1991). In this study, the extent of differences between the Anglo-Australians and Indian-Australians is smaller than expected but this is becoming the norm for migrants (Phalet and Hagendoorn, 1996). The Indian-Australian mother is being assimilated and is losing her cultural identity. Arrendell (1997) espouses that parenting cognitions are brought about by a native in addition to the dominant cultural groups. The Indian-Australian mother is simply interpreting as influenced by her new surrounding and host and her maternal instincts are preparing the child for the long term. These indicators also confirm that the Indian-Australian mother has developed authoritative child rearing attitude (Jambunathan and Counselman, 2002).
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