Abstract
Learning environments in a sample of communal families and a sample of two-parent married nuclear families are compared for both intragroup and acrossgroup differences likely to influence childrearing and socialization outcomes. Learning environment variables include family and demographic backgrounds of parents; newborn health, developmental, and feeding patterns; personnel, size, and density in households; caretaking patterns; work loads and domestic tasks for mothers; kin and social supports for mothers; beliefs and value orientations of the parents; and change and mobility in families. Creedal and domestic types of communes also differed. The learning environment variables are interdependent with each other and with demographic features of the groups, and there is rapid change in communal lifestyles; both these features suggest that intragroup and longitudinal data are essential for generalizing about the effects of lifestyles on young children.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ALEXANDER, J. (1976) “Alternative life styles: relationship between new realities and practice.” Clinical Social Work J. 4: 289–301.
AUERBACH, K. G. (1978) “A study of timing of first solid foods: comparison of Breast and bottle feeding mothers”. Birth and the Family J. 5: 27–31.
BARRY, H. and L. PAXSON (1971) “Infancy and early childhood: cross-cultural codes 2.” Ethnology 10: 466–508.
BARRY, H., L. JOSEPHSON, E. LAUER, and C. MARSHALL (1976) “Traits inculcated in childhood: cross-cultural codes 5.” Ethnology 15: 83–114.
BERGER, B., HACKETT, B., and R. MILLAR (1974) “Child-rearing practices in the communal family,” in A. Skolnick and J. Skonick (eds.) Intimacy, Family, and Society. Boston: Little, Brown.
BERNARD, J. (1975) Women, Wives, Mothers. Chicago: Aldine.
—— (1974) The Future of Motherhood. New York: Penguin.
CAPLAN, G. and M. KILLILEA [eds.] (1976) Support Systems and Mutual Help: Multidisciplinary Explorations. New York: Grune & Stratton.
CAUDILL, W. and L. FROST (1972) “A comparison of maternal care and infant behavior in Japanese-American, American and Japanese families,” in U. Bronfenbrenner (ed.) Influences on Human Development. Hinsdale, IL: Dryden.
COHEN, J. and B. EIDUSON (1975) “Changing patterns of child rearing in alternative life styles: implications for development,” in A. Davids (ed.) Child Personality and Psychopathology: Current Topics. New York: John Wiley.
COLE, M. and S. SCRIBNER (1974) Culture and Thought. New York: John Wiley.
CONSTANTINE, L. and J. CONSTANTINE (1973) Group Marriage: A Study of Contemporary Multilateral Marriages. New York: Macmillan.
EIDUSON, B. (1974) “Looking at children in emergent family styles.” Children Today 4: 2–6.
--- and FAMILY LIFE STYLES PROJECT STAFF (1976) Progress Report, National Institute of Mental Health, Applied Research Branch.
EIDUSON, B. and T. WEISNER (1978) “Alternative family styles: effects on young children,” in J. Stevens and M. Mathews (eds.) Mother/Child Father/Child Relationships. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
EIDUSON, B., SNIBBE, H., and FAMILY LIFE STYLES PROJECT STAFF (1975) Drug Using Parents and their Children, Part I, Anticipatory Socialization Behaviors. (Report to the National Institute of Drug Use, Contract #271-75-3033), Los Angeles: University of California, Department of Psychiatry.
EIDUSON, B. T., I. L. ZIMMERMAN, and M. BERNSTEIN (1978) “Socialization of first versus second born children during infancy.” Presented at American Psychological Association, Toronto.
FOMON, S. (1975) “What are infants fed in the U.S.A.?” Pediatrics 65: 350.
FORTES, M. (1970) “Social and psychological aspects of education in Taleland,” in J. Middleton (ed.) From Child to Adult: Studies in the Anthropology of Education. New York: American Museum Sourcebooks in Anthropology.
GARDNER, H. (1978) The Children of Prosperity. Thirteen Modern American Communes. New York: St. Martin's Press.
HUNT, J. (1976) “Environmental risk in fetal and neonatal life and measured infant intelligence,” in M. Lewis (ed.) Origins of Intelligence: Infancy and Early Childhood. New York: Plenum.
KAGAN, J. (1971) Change and Continuity in Infancy. New York: John Wiley.
KANTER, R. (1972) Commitment and Community. Utopias and Communes in Sociological Perspective. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
KANTER, R. (1976) “The romance of community: intentional communities as intensive group experiences,” in M. Rosenbaum and A. Snadovsky (eds.) The Intensive Group Experience. New York: Free Press.
KONNER, M. (1975) “Relations among infants and juveniles in comparative perspective,” in M. Lewis and L. Rosenblum (eds.) Friendship and Peer Relationships. New York: John Wiley.
KONNER, M. (1977) “Evolution of human behavior development,” pp. 69–109 in P. Leiderman, S. Tulken, and A. Rosenfeld (eds.) Culture and Infancy. Variations in the Human Experience. New York: Academic Press.
KORNFEIN, M. (1977) “Motives, satisfaction, and lifestyle stability in alternative families.” Presented at the American Orthopsychiatric Association, March, San Francisco.
T. WEISNER, and J. MARTIN (1977) “Women into mothers: experimental family life styles,” in R. Chapman and M. Gates (eds.) Women Into Wives. The Legal and Economic Impact of Marriage. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
LANDAU, R. (1976) “Extent that the mother represents the social stimulation to which the infant is exposed: findings from a cross-cultural study.” Developmental Psychology 12: 399–405.
MINTURN, L. and W. LAMBERT (1964) Mothers of Six Cultures. Antecedents of Child Rearing. New York: John Wiley.
MUNROE, R. L. and R. H. MUNROE (1975) Cross-Cultural Human Development. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
NERLEVE, S. and S. SNIPPER (forthcoming) “The cognitive consequences of cultural opportunity,” in B. Munroe, R. Munroe, and B. Whiting (eds.) Handbook of Cross-Cultural Human Development. New York: Garland.
OAKLEY, A. (1974) The Sociology of Housework. New York: Pantheon.
PARMALEE, A. and R. MICHAELIS (1971) “Neurological examination of the newborn,” in J. Helmuch (ed.) Exceptional Infant. Studies in Abnormalities, Vol. 2. New York: Bruner/Mazel.
ROGOFF, B. (1978) “Spot observation: an introduction and examination.” Q. Newsletter of the Institute for Comparative Human Behavior 2: 21–26.
REBELSKY, F. and P. DANIEL (1975) “Cross-cultural studies of infant intelligence,” in M. Lewis (ed.) Origins of Intelligence: Infancy and Early Childhood. New York: Plenum.
TULKIN, S. and J. KAGAN (1972) “Mother-child interaction in the first year of life,” in U. Bronfenbrenner (ed.) Influences on Human Development. Hinsdale, IL: Dryden.
WEISNER, T. and FAMILY LIFE STYLES PROJECT STAFF (1976) “Ideology, values, and family life styles.” Technical report submitted to the National Institute of Mental Health, Applied Research Branch.
WEISNER, T. and R. GALLIMORE (1977) “My brother's keeper: child and sibling caretaking.” Current Anthropology 18: 169–189.
WEISNER, T., J. MARTIN, and M. BAUSANO (n.d.) Manual for Six Month Home Observations: Forms, Procedures, and Definitions. (unpublished)
WHITE, B. and J. WATTS (1973) Experience and Environment. Major Influences on the Development of the Young Child. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
WHITING, B. [ed.] (1963) Six Cultures: Studies of Child Rearing. New York: John Wiley.
WHITING, B. and J. WHITING (1975) Children of Six Cultures. A Psycho-Cultural Analysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
ZIMMERMAN, T. L. and R. MICKEY (1976) “Parental achievement orientation values and Bayley-scored one-year-olds.” Presented at the Western Psychological Association, April, Los Angeles.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weisner, T.S., Martin, J.C. Learning environments for infants. J Fam Econ Iss 2, 201–242 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01082595
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01082595