Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to compare Bangladeshi and European American mothers’ beliefs about young children’s aggression, social withdrawal, and shyness in a cross-cultural context. Twenty-three mothers from Bangladesh and 27 mothers from the Unites States, with at least one child between the ages of two and five, completed questionnaires to rate their emotional responses, causal attributions, and parenting strategies in response to the three problem social behaviors depicted in hypothetical vignettes. Both Bangladeshi and European American mothers reported higher ratings of anger, disappointment, and embarrassment for aggressive behavior than socially withdrawn and shy behavior; however, Bangladeshi mothers reported higher ratings for anxiousness for all three behaviors than European American mothers. Bangladeshi mothers were also more likely to report the problem behaviors as unintentional. European American mothers were twice as likely to recommend high power parenting strategies involving forcing the appropriate behavior and punishment as the Bangladeshi mothers in response to aggressive behavior. Both Bangladeshi and European American mothers reported little distinction between responses for social withdrawal and shyness. The findings were discussed in the context of how maternal beliefs influence child socialization and were compared to past results in other cultures.