Here is a shorter version with more links Pictures from Ghana
Some underlying notions:
1: Nature forms culture.
2: Culture and child rearing practices are closely linked
3: Child rearing influence both
personality and cognitive structures.
WHAT THIS PRESENTATION WILL SHOW
1: English children perform better on "Ravens Progressive Matrices" than Ghanaian children
2: Child rearing in Ghana is stricter than in Norway
3: Ghanian children remember
better digits read to them in English than their
local languages Twi and Ewe
4: The difference between
"Digit Forward" and "Digit Backwards" is bigger in
Ghanian children compared with
American and Norwegian children.
Factors contributing to the difference on Ravens test may be:
a: Malnutrition and/or undernourishment.
b: Lack of attention and stimulation from one year old.
c: Strict and overprotective child rearing practices.
d: Poor educational facilities.
Different factors influencing short term memory
a: The digits in Twi and Ewe
are longer and harder to pronounce and rehearse
than those in English
b: Digits belong to modern life, not tribal society
The stricter child rearing practice
in Ghana fits in with the notion that people there are more field dependent,
that in such society is it more important to comply with traditional norms
than to show independence and individuality
RAVENS PROGRESSIVE MATRICES AND
TWO DIFFERENT NORMS
English and Ghanaian norms compared.
Former professor Bulley of The Department of Psychology, University of Ghana at Legon, Accra has done a standardization of Ravens Progressive Matrices in 1973. A BA thesis from 1978 by Neal Boafo is referring to The Progressive Matrices As an Instrument for Determining Educability in Ghana (Bulley 1973) The Ghanaian means deviate a lot from those based on English samples as can be seen in the table below.
Ghanaian and English norms for Ravens Progressive Matrices
| Age | N Ghana | Mean Ghana | Mean England | Difference England-Ghana in SD | SD Ghana |
| 8-10 | 355 | 13.28 | 24 | 1.3 | 8.12 |
| 11-12 | 660 | 16.55 | 37 | 2.5 | 8.24 |
| 13 | 520 | 22.14 | 43 | 2.1 | 10.11 |
| 14 | 702 | 28.36 | 44 | 1.5 | 10.14 |
| 15 | 657 | 29.46 | 12.12 | ||
| 16 | 773 | 30.52 | 11.68 | ||
| 17 | 662 | 32.69 | 11.63 | ||
| 18 | 662 | 32.85 | 12.01 | ||
| 19 | 429 | 35.66 | 11.50 | ||
| 20 | 359 | 35.81 | 44 | 0.8 | 10.55 |
| 21-24 | 714 | 38.62 | 44 | 0.5 | 10.76 |
| 25-29 | 380 | 36.59 | 42 | 0.5 | 11.35 |
| 30+ | 318 | 32.44 | 40 | .6 | 12.43 |
I have also collected some data in Ghana using Ravens Progressive
Matrices and have got means
close to those of professor Bulley.
What are the reasons for this discrepancies?
The discrepancy is particularly great in 11-13 years
group, 2.1 to 2.5 SD, which translated into
IQ scores is 32- to 38 IQ points. If
we look at still some
other norms the differences becomes even clearer.
Raven's Progressive Matrices percentiles for
primary 4 to 6 (9.5 to 11.5 years) Hong Kong
children, and British norms.
Percentile
95 90
75 50
25 10
5
Hong Kong
52 51
48 43
38 29
23
J. Raven (1979)
50
47 43
39 32
26 20
From S.H. Irving & J.H. Berry (eds.1988)
p.347
After having read through articles and books
about related topics the following factors are
suggested as part of an explanation:
1. Malnourishment and/or undernourishment:
This can take various forms. It can be that the mother hasn't got enough
food when pregnant and this has affected the child in a negative way, or
the child may have suffered from protein deficiency or have got too little
food which have made it passive and thereby less active that again have
effected learning in a negative way. Or it may not have got certain vitamins.
2: Attention: When
the child is about one year old it can manage most things on its own and
the mother,
is devoting less time to the child and
the stimulation that this imply. The father seems to be a rather
remote figure in most cases.
3: Lack of things to play with:
The child has few things to play with that stimulates it in various ways.
4: Strict child rearing: This may discourage
interaction with the physical environment in the form of play,
sport etc., independence and curiosity. This reason has been mentioned
in various publications.
5: Education: The kindergartens and
schools are poorly equipped. Mostly they have only a blackboard, few books
and no visual material such as pictures and maps. There is also very much
a one way communication from teacher to the pupil. The teachers are poorly
motivated and often absent from school. Their pay is such that they can't
live by it and they have mostly extra activities going to support their
family. Farming is very common in rural areas.
Comments: From the table above it can be seen that the discrepancy between the English and the Ghanaian norms is getting less with an increasing age. This can be interpreted as the Ghanaian is catching up, but the development is slower for one reason or another. The remaining 0.5 SD is in line with discrepancies found by Ph.D. student Benjamin Amponsah on spatial tests where he has been comparing Ghanaian and Norwegian teacher college students.
One important question is to know the particular samples professor Bulley has based his norms on. The samples in school age, up to around 16 years are a fairly representative according to Professor Bully (personal communication Jan. 98) while data from the older samples mostly were taken from people seeking either technical jobs or education. So the older age groups seem to be better educated than the average population.
Some of the scores in my sample is so low that the children would
be classified as mentally retarded. What ought to be done is to investigate
such cases more thoroughly. For instance after 2 or 3 years in school one
could give a standardized reading- and writing test to see how many reached
a certain level. Out from combined test results one could try to diagnose
each case and try to find remedial measures.
Oral society and auditory short term memory: Ghana may be characterized as an oral society. There are normally no signs on buses telling where they are going, few road signs and few maps around. I had to search several weeks before I found a road map of Ghana. The driver and mate of the trotro, minibus, are shouting out their destination. The Ghanaian also seem to love music. Will this, that they attend so much to auditory information, also make them better in remembering auditory material? From my own data with congenitally blind it can be seen that they have a better short term auditor memory than comparable groups. This may be explained by that they attend more to auditory material than sighted people. But one don't find this among those that have become blind as grown up persons, which indicates that there may be a critical age when the brain is molded with respect to processing auditory information. An additional factor that apply to Ghana is that almost everybody is bilingual. Will there be a difference if digits is presented in English or the local language? Some of my data indicate that children and adolescents remember better what is read to them in English than in Twi or Ewe. Why? Maybe because the English digits are easier to say and rehearse. This may be supported by that people often use to say numbers in English while speaking their local language. So to measure short term auditory memory as in Digit Span, a sub test of WISC-R and WAIS, is not a straight forward matter.
My data from also indicate that among Ghanaian children there is
a bigger difference between remembering digits forwards and backwards compared
with American or Norwegian children.
What are the Ghanaian children good at? They
seem to develop their musical ability together with a sense for rhythm
and dance. Further, they seem to develop a good social intelligence. Ghanaians
are very friendly, polite and hospitable. They have no major violent conflicts
within their country which can be very damaging to a country and which
has ruined several African countries.
Some ideas for future research: It would
be of great interest to use some selected tests in various parts of Ghana
and characterize the areas with background variables related to environmental,
nutritional, social, health and educational factors. WISC-R and
Ravens
Progressive Matrices could be two relevant tests.
Problem: Why is Ghana, together with almost every African country, doing so poorly as far as income and living standard goes? Many will attribute it to that far more emphasis is put on social relation, particularly loyalty to their extended family, than on performing a good job, being efficient. The employee is more concerned about pleasing his superior and not go against him than showing initiative and independence. This is related to both collectivism and a great power distance. Gert Hofstede is showing a correlation of 0.82 between individualism and Gross Natural Product in 1970, and a correlation of 0.77 between distance from equator and GNP.
Another factor is the ability to acquire knowledge related to modern
technology like mathematics and engineering subjects. Many, Luria i.e.,
claim that there is a positive correlation between spatial aptitude and
mathematical ability. Thus, it may be postulated that the Ghanaian culture
is not giving a very good basis for acquiring knowledge related to modern
technology, and this again may be related to child rearing and other factors
mentioned above.
Here comes some results
Descriptive Statistics
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
AGE 21 10,00 14,00 12,38 1,02
AGEENG 22 6,00 6,00 6,000 ,00
EDUFA 22 1,00 4,00 3,41 ,73
EDUMO 22 1,00 4,00 3,09 ,81
Explanations:AGEENG: When children started to learn English, EDUFA & EDUMO: Fathers and mothers education on a 1-7 points scale. Higher is better education
DIGIT SPAN FORWARD AND BACKWARDS IN ENGLISH AND EWE
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
ENGBACK 22 2,00 8,00 4,77 2,09
ENGFW 22 3,00 9,00 6,50 2,57
EWEBACK 22 2,00 7,00 3,86 1,75
EWEFW 22 2,00 9,00 4,81 1,62
DIGIT SPAN
Girls (1) and boys (2) compared. Group testing with good control.
SEX N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
ENGBACK
1,00
15 4,40
1,92
,50
2,00
7 5,57
2,37
,90
EWEBACK
1,00
15 3,20
1,26
,33
2,00
7 5,29
1,89
,71
ENGFW
1,00
15
6,40
2,53
,65
2,00
7
6,71
2,87
1,08
EWEFW
1,00
15
4,53
1,1255
,29
2,00
7
5,43
2,37
,90
The boys remember better "Digits
Backwards" than girls, but
there is no significant difference
remembering "Digits Forwards".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Those speaking TWI (1) compared with those speakingEWE (2)
LANGUAGE
N
Mean S.D.
Digit Backward English
1
139
6,40 2,03
2
107
4,74 2,73
The Twi speaking children
remember better Digit Backwards" read in English than the Ewe speaking
children.
Dig. Back. Loc. Language
1
139
4,99 2,55
2
107
5,04 2,82
Digit Forward English
1
139
7,02 1,87
2
107
7,23 2,26
Dig.Fwd.Loc. Language
1
139
5,79
2,74
2
107
7,02
2,40
The Ewe speaking children
remember better "Digit Forwards" read in English than the Twi speaking
children
Education Father
1
131
3,02 1,39
2
102
3,10 1,18
Education Mother
1
134
2,27 1,23
2
103
2,82 1,24
Education on a 1-7 points scale with higher
number indicate higher education
Started to learn English
1
137
7,91 3,06
2
105
6,40 2,53
The Ewe children started to learn English
earlier than the Twi speaking children
CLASS N Mean Std. Deviation
DIGITBW1
6
34 3,35
1,20
SET 1
9
34 3,21
1,34
DIGITBW2
6
34 3,21
1,20
SET 2
9
34 3,26
1,50
DIGITFW1
6
34 6,24
1,05
SET 1
9
34 6,56
1,35
DIGITFW2
6
34 6,21
1,27
SET 2
9
34 6,18
1,57
DIGSUM1
6
34 9,59
1,64
SET 1
9
34 9,76
2,22
DIGSUM2
6
34 9,41
1,92
SET 2
9
34
9,44
2,48
Comments: The children
remember digits far better forwards than backwards and there is
no difference between class 6 and 9.
More results supporting the findings above
DIGSUM US
6
13 Score
of American children
9
14 in the same age group
Comment: The American children have a higher score than Ghanaian.
Age
6
34 12.76
1.18
9
34 14.97
1.03
DIGIT SPAN
Factor analysis of 68 pupils
in class 6 and 9 (3JJS) at Aburi, Ghana. Individual testing.
Components (factors)
AGE
,925
-6,886E-02
-3,821E-02
CLASS
,917
1,282E-02
6,719E-02
DIGITBW2
1,529E-02 ,892
7,273E-02
DIGITBW1
-7,085E-02 ,844
,226
DIGITFW1
,157 5
,293E-02
,876
DIGITFW2
-,142
,268
,819
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method:
Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. a Rotation
converged in 5 iterations.
Comment: To remember digits forwards
and backwards is partly two different processes.
"Backwards" correlates with spatial aptitude
and for some groups with intelligence.
DIGIT SPAN IN TWI AND ENGLISH
ABSTRACT: These data are based on individual
testing as in Digit Span in WAIS. The results show that the pupils remembered
better when digits were read to them in English than in Twi, that the pupils
of class 6 do better than the older pupils in class 9 (3JSS) and started
to learn English earlier. The reason for remembering digits better in English
may be that the digit names are shorter and easier to pronounce in English
than in Twi. That the younger pupils do better than the older is more puzzling.
The explanation may partly be that the pupils in class 6 attend a better
school and have a more positive attitude towards education than the pupils
from class 9.
All
subjects in class 6 in Nsawam in Ghana.
Wiegggers Primary School
DIGITS READ IN ENGLISH AND TWI
Comparisons of means
Twi = 1,
English
=
All subjects in class 6 and
9 in Nsawam, a town in Ghana
First presentation
Twi = 1, English = 4
DB1 and S1 are significant at the 1% level: **
DF1 is significant at the 5% level*
In the second presentation, in the same group, there were no significant
differences
All subjects in class 9 in Nsawam
in Ghana.
Adoagiri R/C Junior Secondary
School
DB1 and S1 are significant at the 5% level
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CLASS 6 AND 9
REMEMBERING DIGITS FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS
All subjects in class 6 and 9 in Nsawam in Ghana.
All subjects in class 6 in
Nsawam in Ghana.
The difference between remembering
digits forwards and backwards is
Varimax factor analysis for both classes
What language does the family speak at home?
Discussion:The
younger pupils do better than the older. What is the explanation? They
stay at two different schools. Are JSS of poorer quality or are the pupils
a different social and ethnic group? Or do pupils stagnate in their development?
If so, what is the reason for this? Has the younger group got more stimulation,
including better education?
This is the first draft. Discussion
will be continued when time is available. Comments are welcome.
Appendix with information:
The last set of data from Ghana Sept. 1998 came
from Frank Naehro, school circuit supervisor. He has previously collected
data in Aburi, but this time in Nsawam which is bigger than Aburi. All
data in Digit Span was discarded when the score was 1 in either forward
or backward. This type of score may indicate that the the task had not
been understood.
Nsawam is one of the bigger towns of Ghana situated
about 30 km north of Accra.
Description of variable names:
Aen= age when they started to learn English
Age= how old they are
CS= Continuos schooling. If no:, If Yes: 2
DB1=Digit Span Backwards first presentation
DB2=Digit Span Backwards second presentation
DF1=Digit Span Forwards first presentation
DF2=Digit Span Forwards second presentation
Home= language spoken at home
in1= digit presented in language 1 (Twi) or 4 (English). First presentation
in2= digit presented in language 1 (Twi) or 4 (English). Second presentation
la=language spoken at school
Sex: 1= Females, 2= Males
S1= DF1+DB1
S2=DF2+DB2
Language codes:
1= Twi, 2= Ewe,
3=
Ga, 4= English,
5= Hausa, 6= Fante, 7, Dagaro, 9= Other
Child Rearing Questionnaire,
Locus of Control and INDCOL
Answered by 83 Ghanaian teachers
N Min Max Mean Std. Deviation
Variable
names
AGE 81 20 62 35,62 10,38
CHILD01
83 2
6 4,89
,95
CHILD02
78 1
6 5,33
1,03 Encourage to do its best
CHILD03
80 1 6
2,54 1,51
CHILD04
82 1 6
3,79 1,61
CHILD05
81 1 6
2,86 1,39
CHILD06
82 1 6
2,98 1,59
CHILD07 83
1 6 5,16 ,
96 Concerned about eating
CHILD08
82 2 6
5,33 1,01 Wish partner more
interested
CHILD09
82 1 6
5,33 ,92 Give comfort &
understanding
CHILD10
83 1 6
3,99 1,53
CHILD11
83 1 6
5,14 1,22 Keep away from
rough games
CHILD12
83 1 6
2,58 1,42
CHILD13
83 1 6
3,54 1.39* 1,77
Seen and not heard
CHILD14
83 1 6
3,14 1,47
CHILD15
83 1 6
4,58 1,20
CHILD16
83 1 6
4,75 1,12
CHILD17
80 1 6
2,68 1,43
CHILD18
82 1 6
2,11 1,39
CHILD19
81 1 6
4,44 1,14
CHILD20
83 1 6
2,60 1,46
CHILD21
83 1 6
3,70 1.40
CHILD22
83 1 6
4,55 1,27 Worry about ugly
things
CHILD23
82 1 6
4,11 1.96* 1,34
Not
get angry with me
CHILD24
82 1 6
2,24 1,45
CHILD25
83 1 6
4,87 1,07 Great expectations
to child
CHILD26
82 1 6
4,12 1,74
CHILD27
80 1 6
4,61 1,31 Offering my own
interest
CHILD28
82 1 6
1,48 1,12 Not spoiling
the child
CHILD29
83 1 6
4,73 5.40* 1,15
Reason with child
CHILD30
83 1 6
4,42 1,41
CHILD31
83 1 6
4,73 1,15 Joke and play with
child
CHILD32
82 1 6
3,84 1,44
CHILD33
83 1 6
4,54 1,13
CHILD34
83 1 6
4,00 1,42
CHILD35
81 1 6
4,72 1,22
CHILD36
82 2 6
5,06 ,87 Encourage child
to explore & ask
CHILD37
82 1 6
3,70 1,47
CHILD38
83 1 6
3,64 1,57
CHILD39
81 1 6
4,73 1,13
CHILD40
82 3 6
5,29 ,69 Child
knows that I appreciate
CHILD41
82 1 6
4,96 1,02 Encourage to talk
about troubles
CHILD42
83 1 6
4,58 2.66*
1,12 Control feelings
CHILD43
83 1 6
5,23 1,05 Keep away from fighting
CHILD44
82 1 6
3,15 1,79
CHILD45
82 1 6
4,65 1,15 Let him know when
angry
CHILD46
82 1 6
3,41 1,52
CHILD47
83 2 6
4,94 ,86 Give extra
if behaving well
CHILD48
80 1 6
3,74 1,64
CHILD49
83 1 6
4,30 1,52
CHILD50 83
1 6 3,42
1,58
CHILD51
83 2 6
4,69 2.44* ,92
Aware
of sacrifice
CHILD52
83 1 6
5,11 1,22 Worried about health
CHILD53
81 1 5
1,74 1,03
CHILD54
81 1 6
2,91 1,46
CHILD55
83 1 6
3,87 1,54
CHILD56 83
1 6 5,01 3.18*
1,03 Ashamed if misbehaving
CHILD57
83 1 6
3,73 1,30
CHILD58
83 2 6
5,41 ,75 Want to know
whereabouts of ..
CHILD59
82 1 6
4,51 1,34
CHILD60
83 2 6
4,57 2.06*
1,03 Not get dirty
CHILD61
83 1 6
4,30 1,34
CHILD62
82 1 6
3,61 1,30
CHILD63 83
2 6 5,06 2.71*
,79 Warning about bad things
CHILD64
82 1 6
3,30 1,68
ICSUM 82 40 62 50,30 5,06 INDCOL
LOCSUM 82
2 1 5
9,44 2,82 Locus of Control
Rotated Component Matrix. Varimax
Factor 1: Nurture and some control
CHILD41 ,701 Encourage child to talk about his troubles
CHILD40 ,686 Child knows that I appriciate
CHILD63 ,682 Control by warning
CHILD58 ,659 Know the whereabouts of the child
CHILD02 ,607 Encourage to do its best
CHILD18 -,604 , 356 Wish not develop so rapidly
CHILD45 ,542 ,352 Let child know when angry
CHILD51 ,530 ,306
CHILD21 ,521
CHILD08 ,514
Factor 2: Control and responsibility
CHILD32 ,575 Give responsibility
CHILD28 ,512 Not spoiling the child
CHILD54 ,500 Don’t allow questions about
decisions
Factor 3
CHILD47 ,510 Give extra if behaving
CHILD27 ,485 Offering my interest for children
CHILD19 ,378 -,481 Child should have time to daydream etc.
CHILD22 ,446 Worry about ugly things child may encounter
Extraction Method: Principal
Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
Rotation converged in 5 iterations.
Factor 1 may be called
nurture, factor 2 control, while factor 3 is more diffuse
Child rearing and the Ghanaian personality.
How is this related to child rearing?
Discussion of this will come later.
Child Rearing Questionnaire
Likert-Scale 1-6:
1 = not at all descriptive of me, 2= not descriptive of me, 3= rather
not descriptive of me,
4= to some extent descriptive of me, 5= descriptive
of me, 6= highly descriptive of me
The differences that are most pronounced is colored. Red means more than 2 points in difference, blue 1-2 points in difference. Most Standard Deviations are between 1 and 1.5, and the D-values would be close to the point differences and they are all highly significant. More values than those with color would be statistically significantly different.
Mean
Mean
Ghana
Norway
CHILD01 Respect child, encourageexpression
4.89
4.97
CHILD02 Encourage to do its
best
5.33
5.28
CHILD03 Preference to mate
before child
2.54
2.29
CHILD04 Help
child when teased
3.79*
4.81
CHILD05 I often feel angry
with child
2.86
2.66
CHILD06 Punishing , putting
away
2.98
2.83
CHILD07 Concerned about eating
5,16
4.45
CHILD08 Wish
partner more interested in our children
5.33***
1.96
CHILD09 Give comfort &
understanding
5.33
5.75
CHILD10 Keeping
child away from different families
3.99**
1.96
CHILD11 Keep
away from rough games
5.14*
4.09
CHILD12 Physical punishment
2.58*
1.39
CHILD13 Seen
and not heard
3.54**1.39*
1.38
CHILD14 Forget promises
3.14
2.56
CHILD15 Express
affection, hugging.kissing
4.58*
5.75
CHILD16 Find great satisfaction
in my child
4.75
5.40
CHILD17 Not try things if
chance to fail
2.68
2.20
CHILD18 Wish
child did not grow up so fast
2.11*
3.37
CHILD19 Child should
have time to think, daydream etc
4,44
5.18
CHILD20 I
find it difficult to punish child
2.60*
4.22
CHILD21 I let my child
make many decisions
3.70
4.02
CHILD22 Worry about
bad and sad things which may happen with child
4.55
3.59
CHILD23 I
do not allow Child not to get angry with me
4.11 **1.96*
2.07
CHILD24 My
child is a bit of disappointment to me
2.24*
1.08
CHILD25
I exspect a great deal of my
child
4.87*
3.60
CHILD26 Easygoing
and relaxed with my child
4.12*
5.13
CHILD27
Offering my own interest for the child
4.61
4.63
CHILD28 I
am spoiling the child
1.48**
3.91
CHILD29 Reason
with my child when misbehaving
4.73 5.40*
5.26
CHILD30 Trust
child behaves
4.42
5.10
CHILD31 Joke
and play with child
4.73
5.13
CHILD32
Give child duties and responsibilities
3.84
3.99
CHILD33 The child
and I have intimate times together
4.54
5.34
CHILD34 I have
strict well established rules for my child
4.00
4.53
CHILD35 One has
to let the child take chances when growing up
4.72
4.54
CHILD36 Encourage
child to explore & ask
5,06
4.95
CHILD37 Feel I
am too involved with my child
3.70
3.42
CHILD38 I threaten
punishment more often than I do it
3.64
3.47
CHILD39 Praising
child when good instead of punishing when bad
4.73
5.20
CHILD40 Child
knows that I appreciate what he tries to do
5.29
5.11
CHILD41 Encourage
to talk about troubles
4.96
5.11
CHILD42 Teach
child to control his feelings
4.58 **2.66*
2.55
CHILD43 Keep
away from fighting
5.23*
3.99
CHILD44 I dread
answering questions about sex
3.15
2.29
CHILD45 Let him
know when angry
4.65
5.13
CHILD46 Punishing
child by taking away privilege
3.41
3.30
CHILD47 Give
extra privileges if behaving well
4.94*
3.82
CHILD48 I enjoy
having the house full of children
3.74
4.18
CHILD49 Too
much love harmful
4.30***
1.35
CHILD50 Scolding
make child improve
3.42*
1.83
CHILD51 Child
should be aware of my sacrifice for him
4.69** 2.44*
1.81
CHILD52
Worried about health of my child
5.11**
2.62
CHILD53 ..a
good deal of conflict between my and child
1,74
1.74
CHILD54 I do not
allow the child to question my decisions
2,91
2.07
CHILD55 I
like to have some time for myself away from child
3,87*
4.99
CHILD56 Ashamed
if misbehaving
5,01* 3.18*
3.46
CHILD57 I encourage
child to be independent of me
3,73
4.03
CHILD58 Want to
know whereabouts of child
5,41
5.13
CHILD59 Interesting
and educational to be with my child
4,51
5.21
CHILD60 Instruct
child not get dirty when playing
4,57**2.06*
2.21
CHILD61 Jealousy
and quarrelling between siblings should be punished
4,30**
2.01
CHILD62 Learn
not to cry at an early age
3,61**
1.25
CHILD63 Control
by warning about bad things that
can happen to him
5,06**2.71*
2.59
CHILD64 Children
should not be given sexual information before they understand
all 3,30
2.78
*= Norwegian results from Renuka Sethis data
Child Rearing Questionnaire
Likert-Scale 1-6: 1
= not at all descriptive of me, 2= not descriptive of me, 3= rather not
descriptive of me,
4= to some extent descriptive of me, 5= descriptive
of me, 6= highly descriptive of me
The differences that are most pronounced is colored. Red means more than 2 points in difference, blue 1-2 points in difference. Most Standard Deviations are between 1 and 1.5, and the D-values would be close to the point differences and they are all highly significant. More values than those with color would be statistically significantly different.
Mean
Mean
Ghana
Norway
CHILD04 Help
child when teased
3.79*
4.81
CHILD08 Wish
partner more interested in our children
5.33***
1.96
CHILD10 Keeping
child away from different families
3.99**
1.96
CHILD11 Keep
away from rough games
5.14*
4.09
CHILD12 Physical
punishment
2.58*
1.39
CHILD13 Seen
and not heard
3.54**1.39*
1.38
CHILD15 Express
affection, hugging.kissing
4.58*
5.75
CHILD18 Wish
child did not grow up so fast
2.11*
3.37
CHILD20 I
find it difficult to punish child
2.60*
4.22
CHILD23 I
do not allow Child not to get angry with me
4.11 **1.96*
2.07
CHILD24 My
child is a bit of disappointment to me
2.24*
1.08
CHILD25
I exspect a great deal of my
child
4.87*
3.60
CHILD26 Easygoing
and relaxed with my child
4.12*
5.13
CHILD28 I
am spoiling the child
1.48**
3.91
CHILD42 Teach
child to control his feelings
4.58 **2.66*
2.55
CHILD43 Keep
away from fighting
5.23*
3.99
CHILD47 Give
extra privileges if behaving well
4.94*
3.82
CHILD49 Too
much love harmful
4.30***
1.35
CHILD50 Scolding
make child improve
3.42*
1.83
CHILD51 Child
should be aware of my sacrifice for him
4.69** 2.44*
1.81
CHILD52
Worried about health of my child
5.11**
2.62
CHILD55 I
like to have some time for myself away from child
3,87*
4.99
CHILD56 Ashamed
if misbehaving
5,01* 3.18*
3.46
CHILD60 Instruct
child not get dirty when playing
4,57**2.06*
2.21
CHILD61 Jealousy
and quarrelling between siblings should be punished
4,30**
2.01
CHILD62 Learn
not to cry at an early age
3,61**
1.25
CHILD63 Control
by warning about bad things that
can happen to him
5,06**2.71*
2.59
*= Norwegian results from Renuka Sethis data
Interpretation: It looks as if the Ghanian
child get as much nurture as the Norwegian child, but are more readily
punished and and required to control his feelings. The control aspect seems
much stronger in Ghana than Norway.
References:
Irvine, S.H. & Berry, J.H.(1988) (eds.)
Human Abilities in Cultural Context. New York. Cambridge University Press
QUESTIONS
What are the educational and economical concequences of a culture with this child-rearing practice?
What are the political consequences?
How does it affect the society?
What can be done to implement changes?
Who should decide what with respect to changes and on what grounds?
How can knowledge from this field be used
together with other theories?
This paper is a first draft. Comments are
welcome. Contact me by e-mail, snail mail or in person
for discussion and/or comments
Bjarne Fjeldsenden
Dept. of Psychology, NTNU
7491 Trondheim
NORWAY
E-mail: Bjarne.Fjeldsenden@svt.ntnu.no