Social and Didactic Parenting Behaviors and Beliefs Among Japanese American and South American Mothers of Infants
Linda R. Cote and Marc H. Bornstein
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Mothers of Japanese or South American ancestry living in the United States participated. Similarities and differences in mothers’ social and didactic parenting behaviors and beliefs, and direct relations between behaviors and beliefs in these 2 domains of interaction, are reported. In accordance with a common collectivist orientation, Japanese American and South American mothers reported that they engaged in more social than didactic interactions with their infants, and South American mothers more than Japanese American mothers. However, in actuality, both of these acculturating groups engaged in more didactic than social behaviors with their infants and did so for longer periods of time. Not surprisingly, no belief–behavior relations emerged in either group.