Stay Close to Me: Stranger Anxiety and Maternal Beliefs About Children's Socio-Emotional Development Among Bedouins in the Unrecognized Villages in the Naqab

Abstract

Our study examines stranger anxiety and maternal beliefs about child development in a traditional society living in an adverse socio-political situation. Thirty Bedouin mothers from the ``unrecognized'' villages in the Naqab and their 1-year-old children participated in our study, which utilized a mixed-method approach. First, we observed children's stranger anxiety in everyday situations and examined their mothers' ethnotheories via questionnaires and interviews. Second, we conducted a focus group discussion about stranger anxiety. The data revealed an emphasis on the cultural model of hierarchical relatedness, reflecting traditional values. Although multiple childcare arrangements created an expectation that Bedouin children would adjust easily to strangers, more than half of the Bedouin children showed stranger anxiety. Based on the focus group findings, we attribute the high levels of stranger anxiety to the adverse socio-political situation. Our study highlights the impact of the socio-political context on children's stranger anxiety and their mothers' belief systems. The findings show that definitions of security can take very different forms, depending also on the socio-political situation. Accordingly, parental and child behaviors can carry different meanings.