Evidence suggests that parental mind-mindedness is important for children's social-emotional development; however, almost all research exploring mind-mindedness has been conducted with families from Western backgrounds. The current study explored cross-cultural differences in mind-mindedness based on observed real-time interactions between urban…

It was a hot and humid afternoon in 2006, 3 months after the opening of the Children's House at the Infinity Children's School in Hong Kong. A 3-year-old boy selected a table-scrubbing activity. He moved erratically and without purpose, accidentally bumping into another child and spilling water on the floor. Meanwhile, a toddler girl strolled…

The first distribution of Chinese infant-mother (n = 61) attachment classifications categorised by trained and reliability-tested coders is reported with statistical comparisons to US norms and previous Chinese distributions. Three-way distribution was 15% insecure-avoidant, 62% secure, 13% insecure-resistant, and 4-way distribution was 13%…

Half the Sky, an international NGO, works in partnership with Chinese national and provincial governments inside state-run orphanages (welfare institutions). Through their infant nurture programs infants and toddlers in institutions begin to thrive through primary relationship-based care by trained community paraprofessionals. In preschool…

In the West, institutions are considered the worst environment for rearing young children. It was thus surprising to discover on the 2002 Fulbright Travel Seminar to China that boarding schools for children two years of age and older were popular among affluent parents. This article uses observations of the first author in China, cultural…

This article examines cultural influences on child temperament, including how broadly shared cultural values influence parents' socialization goals for their children. Nearly 40% of children in the United States are being raised in families that may espouse somewhat different socialization goals and may value different "ideal" traits…

With the aim of tailoring future programming decisions to local conditions and concerns, an ethnographic study was commissioned to examine childrearing practices in a small middle income village in Hebei Province, China. The research was designed to learn about the concerns and goals of child care providers, and about the strategic thinking and…