Child-caregiver Attachment Representations in a Non-Western Context: The Feasibility and Cultural Equivalence of Story Stems in Urban Ghana

AbstractA Western worldview pervades the social and psychological study of children. The current study employed a story-stem method to qualitatively explore the daily and family life experiences of young Ghanaian primary school children in urban Ghana through their story narratives. The recorded narratives of 69 5- to 8-year-old children were elicited through presenting stems of common child-caregiver scenarios and thematically analysed. Five overarching themes were identified: daily routines and concerns, child-caregiver interactions, spirituality, death-related fears and depictions, and responses to injury. The narrative themes reveal the likely mental and physical occupations of these children, as characterized by household chores, financial concerns and school concerns, as well as underlying cultural values through their portrayals of parenting values, parental discipline and spiritual beliefs. Story stems depicting common childhood problems (e.g. knee injury) sometimes evoked death and hospitalization subthemes following an escalation of health problems. Possible interpretations for these findings are discussed, taking into account cultural, developmental and emotional factors. Story stems are a promising and developmentally appropriate tool for qualitative analysts to investigate the experiences and worldview of young children in non-Western cultures.

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Child-caregiver attachment, self-evaluation and cognitive development in a group of

South African Journal of Childhood Education ◽

10.4102/sajce.v1i2.93 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Marichelle Van Deventer

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Development ◽

South African ◽

Psychological Health ◽

Statistical Significance ◽

Self Evaluation ◽

First Marriage ◽

African Context ◽

Caregiver Attachment ◽

Child Caregiver

Primary attachment relationships have an enormous influence on later cognitive development, socio-emotional development and psychological health. Up to date, no research explored the correlations between the quality of the child-caregiver attachment relationship (AQ), self-evaluation (SE), and cognitive development (CD) of five-year-old pre-school children. In accordance, the aim of this study was to explore the correlation between these three variables. Ten Afrikaans speaking mother-child dyads from white, two parent, first marriage families participated. Participants were assessed with the Pictorial Self-Evaluation Scale (PSES), The Observed Attachment Behavior Q-set (AQS), and The Griffiths Mental Development Scales; Extended Revised (GMDS-ER) in a single study in a South African context. Results indicate that a positive, medium to high practical significant correlations do exist between the reliabilities. However, because of the small number of infants tested, it was difficult in this initial sample to draw firm conclusions about the statistical significance of the results.Nonetheless the results obtained in this pilot study are very encouraging and holds great value for further investigation.

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