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Ecocultural theory defines culture as a broad context that includes the tasks, goals, beliefs, values, and resources of society. According to ecocultural theory, culture shapes families’ resources, routines, goals, and parenting practices. In turn, these characteristics of family ecology and parenting determine child development. Ecocultural theory is one of the modern approaches that examine the adaptation of children with disabilities and their families. This chapter aims to outline the relationship between cultural values and families’ support resources, and their influence on adaptation of the families and their children with learning disability (LD) within the framework of ecocultural theory. Previous studies supported that cultural values determine public knowledge, awareness, beliefs, and attitudes about LD. This chapter outlines both the detrimental and positive effects of the public knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes on families’ support resources. Also, families’ diversified support resources are detailed, and their differential influences on family and child development are elaborated. In the chapter, an integrated model is presented based on findings of previous empirical studies and ecocultural perspective. The model might enhance a culturally sensitive understanding of the experience of families and children. This chapter can also guide researchers in developing more comprehensive and effective intervention programs for the target group.

Objective Mother-child participation in conversations about past events in early childhood has an invaluable influence on child development. While previous studies have focused on the investigation of maternal styles of talking about the past, the role of maternal attitudes towards reminiscing has been overlooked. This paper presents two studies on the development and validation of two separate scales that assess maternal attitudes in mother-child conversations: the Maternal Attitudes Towards Mother-Child Reminiscing Scale (MCRS) and MCRS-Context. Design In Study 1, we have investigated the factor structure of the MCRS ( N = 312) and MCRS-Context ( N = 278) with a sample of mothers whose children aged between 3 and 7. In Study 2, we aimed to test the factor structure obtained by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in Study 1 using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and we have investigated the psychometric properties of the scales with a different sample of 223 mothers. Results EFA and CFA results have suggested four theoretically consistent factors of the MCRS (interest, competency, satisfaction and difficulty) and a one-factor structure for the MCRS-Context (general positive attitudes in comparison to other mothers). To test construct validity, the relationships with related independent scales were investigated, indicating generally significant and theoretically expected correlations. The test/re-test, Cronbach alpha and composite reliability scores indicated acceptable internal consistency for both scales. Conclusions The findings of both studies provided evidence for the validity and reliability of these scales in evaluating maternal attitudes towards mother-child conversations. It is thought that the studies presented here will provide useful insight for future studies for understanding the link between maternal cognitions and reminiscing practices in mother-child conversations and the effect of that link on child development.