Manifestations of autonomy and relatedness in mothers' accounts of their ethnotheories regarding child care across five cultural communities

Abstract

This study analyzes how autonomy and relatedness manifest in mothers' accounts of their ethnotheories regarding child care. Mothers came from two independent samples from urban middle-class in Germany and California, two autonomous-relational samples from urban middle-class in India and Cameroon, and one interdependent sample from rural Cameroon. Transcriptions of picture-based interviews are coded for discourse elements indicative of both orientations. Mothers from independent and autonomous-relational samples use more I statements and direct references to themselves. Mothers from interdependent and autonomous-relational samples contextualize and refer to authorities more often. Generally, differences between the urban and rural samples in terms of discourse elements related to autonomy are less pronounced than differences in associated socialization goals. This indicates that consciously held beliefs are more sensitive to changes in the families' sociocultural environment than their discourse.