Family socialization practices and childhood development in Caribbean cultural communities.

Abstract

Family socialization practices in Caribbean cultural communities occur in diverse mating and marital systems, often under harsh economic conditions and in neighborhoods of poor quality. Within this context, several factors have helped to shape current socialization practices and childhood outcomes across Caribbean nations. Among them are sociohistorical experiences (e.g., slavery, indentured servitude, colonialism), ancestral cultural practices, internal working models about gender roles and child-rearing, educational attainment, economic ascendancy, contact with adjacent groups, and migration within and external to the Caribbean.In this chapter, we discuss family structural organization patterns for child-rearing, psychocultural beliefs about child-rearing, parenting styles, practices, and goals, and childhood outcomes in English-speaking Caribbean countries. We focus on early socialization processes in two ethnic groups: African Caribbeans who were brought as slaves to the region and Indo Caribbeans

Fathers’ Cognitive Engagement and Preschoolers’ Literacy Skills in Three Ethnic Groups in Trinidad and Tobago

“…Indo-Caribbeans embrace Hinduism and Islam, and marriage (62%) is a primary basis for establishing a family (Roopnarine et al, 2013). Although stable family structural arrangements have been shown to influence children's receptive vocabulary skills among Jamaican families (Roopnarine & Jin, 2016;Samms-Vaughan, 2005), the influence of paternal cognitive engagement on children's early literacy skills in different ethnic groups and family configurations in Caribbean cultural communities has rarely been investigated. Also, little is known about whether Caribbean fathers contribute to childhood development above and beyond maternal engagement activities.…”

Sociodemographic, psychosocial and physical health correlates of common mental disorder symptoms among mothers in Trinidad and Tobago: Examining ethnic variations

“…Different ethnic groups entered Trinidad and Tobago under different circumstances. African Trinidadian experiences of slavery and Indo‐Trinidadian experiences of indentureship have differently shaped the life circumstances, socialisation practices and interaction patterns of its members (e.g., Roopnarine & Jin, ). For example, Indo‐Trinidadians historically have had greater opportunities to retain much of their cultural heritage and practices whereas African Trinidadians have had to contend with the destructive elements of slavery that decimated ancestral practices, redefined family structural patterns and challenged family relationships (Descartes, ; Roopnarine, Evans, & Pant, ).…”

Positive discipline, harsh physical discipline, physical discipline and psychological aggression in five Caribbean countries: Associations with preschoolers' early literacy skills

“…Drawing on UNICEF MICS 4 and 5 data, we determined between‐country differences in the use of positive discipline, harsh physical punishment, physical punishment, psychological aggression and the associations between these four disciplinary practices and preschool‐aged children's literacy skills in the developing Caribbean nations of Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica and Suriname. Using large, representative samples from diverse ethnic backgrounds in these countries, our analyses provided a further assessment of the degrees of associations between harsh and non‐harsh disciplinary practices and children's literacy skills in a part of the developing world where physical punishment is seen as normative (Roopnarine & Jin, ).…”

“…Durbrow, ; Wilson, Wilson, & Berkeley‐Caines, ), and there is a fair amount of denigration of children in the form of blaming and name calling (e.g. “hardened” meaning stubborn, troublesome, lazy) in Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica (Durbrow, ; Roopnarine & Jin, ). However, later studies show that a majority of mothers (70%) and fathers (68%) in a sample of families in Trinidad and Tobago engaged in low levels of physical control with preschool‐aged children (Roopnarine, Yang, Krishnakumar, & Davidson, ).…”

“…The Dominican Republic is Spanish‐speaking, with a large mixed‐ethnic population, and Jamaica is English‐speaking, with a relatively homogeneous African Caribbean population. Within this diverse ethnic mosaic, families embrace Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Rastafari and Orisha religious practices (Roopnarine & Jin, ). The five countries are also at different levels of economic development based on Human Development Indices and all have pockets of poverty in rural and urban areas (UNDP, ).…”