Applied Developmental Science

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Why understanding culture is essential for

Sara Harkness & Charles M. Super

To cite this article: Sara Harkness & Charles M. Super (2020): Why understanding culture
is essential for supporting children and families, Applied Developmental Science, DOI:
10.1080/10888691.2020.1789354

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2020.1789354

Published online: 17 Jul 2020.

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Why understanding culture is essential for supporting children and families

ABSTRACT
Understanding culture is essential for understanding child development, and thus for
designing and evaluating interventions to improve children’s physical and mental health.
We outline seven key aspects of culture, and then review the Developmental Niche, a theor-
etical framework created to highlight the dynamics of cultural influence on development
and to guide assessment of the child’s cultural surround. Within this framework, Parental
Ethnotheories are an especially important part of the psychology of caretakers, as they influ-
ence parental behavior both directly and through parents’ choices of settings and customs
of care. Two examples to illustrate the usefulness of this perspective are provided. One
demonstrates the cost of ignoring culture in a large-scale intervention to combat poverty in
the United States; the other outlines successful use of the Developmental Niche framework
in an intervention to improve infant health in Bangladesh. Together, these examples illumin-
ate the seven aspects of culture reviewed in the introduction.

There is nothing so useful as a good theory. encounters with exotic places that had previously been
Lewin’s oft-cited dictum (Lewin, 1951, p. 169) mostly unknown to the wider “civilized” world. Thus,
seems like a simple observation, yet it brings together Sir Edward Burnett Tylor – often considered the
two elements that in practice rarely meet. Theory is founder of cultural anthropolzogy – defined culture in
the domain of academics, an attempt to capture some his two-volume opus Primitive Culture as “that com-
basic aspect of order in the way we think about real- plex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art,
ity. Although good theories build the foundation for morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and
further theoretical discoveries, the theories, and their habits acquired by man as a member of society”
usefulness, rarely cross the boundary to practice in (Tylor, 1877, vol. 1 p. 1). More recently, globalization
daily life. Yet in daily life as in scientific thinking, and increased ethnic diversity within societies have
good theories are essential for successful functioning.
made it impossible to ignore the cultural dimensions
In the study of culture and children’s development, a
of ideas and practices that underlie all behavior –
useful theory is one that not only increases our under-
including those that are usually taken for granted as
standing, but also helps us to support children and
normal within the cultural communities to which
families in a variety of contexts. In this paper, we
many researchers belong. Definitions of culture that
review one such theory that has been widely used in
include everything, however, end up explaining very
academics, with particular attention to its usefulness
for policies and interventions to promote children’s little, and anthropological thinking about culture has
healthy development. evolved over time toward understanding aspects of
culture as they apply to a variety of specific topics. In
relation to child development, anthropologists gener-
A brief history of “culture” in anthropology ally agree on seven features of culture (LeVine, 1984):
A consideration of the usefulness of “culture” in child-
ren’s development must of course begin by addressing 1. Culture is shared among members of a community:
the concept of culture itself. Historically, recognition in LeVine’s words (1984, p. 68), “culture represents
of “culture” as something other than art, music, or a consensus on a wide variety of meanings among
even good manners coincided with British colonial members of an interacting community.”

CONTACT Sara Harkness sara.harkness@uconn.edu University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA

2. Culture organizes meanings and actions across new surrounding culture (Moscardino et al., 2006;
widely diverse domains within a community. As Raghavan et al., 2010; Rice, 2000).
LeVine states (1984, p. 72), “Nothing is more 6. Culture has historically been conceptualized by
characteristic of contemporary anthropologists anthropologists as external environment – the
than the conviction that the customs they study “way of life” of a community, including laws,
are connected and comprehensible only as parts institutions, and artifacts; and more recently as
of a larger organization – of beliefs, norms, val- “something inside the head” for members of a
ues, or social actions.” John and Beatrice Whiting, cultural community (Handwerker, 2002). Current
similarly, wrote that cultural systems of beliefs, understandings of culture generally include both
values, and behaviors are “not only … internally as necessary complements to each other. This
integrated, but each type of custom is systematic- apparent paradox can be understood in compari-
ally related to the others. [They] form in combin- son to language and the speech community: in
ation a blueprint for action that has been called both cases, there is a constant process of commu-
the custom complex” (Whiting & Whiting, 1960, nication and transaction between the individual
p. 921). participant and the social environment.
3. Cultural beliefs exist in a variety of forms, from 7. Culture is not a larger version of personality.
those that are encoded in law or ceremony to Although members of a cultural community share a
those that are implicit, taken-for-granted ideas common set of (often implicit) ideas about things
about the right and natural way to do something. such as the nature of the child, the proper way to
This aspect of culture is particularly important for interact with other family members, and perceptions
the study of children’s culturally structured envi- of the self, every cultural community necessarily
ronments, because it is the combination of the includes a wide variety of individually differing peo-
normative and descriptive, “the fusion of what is ple. Further, the organization of individual differen-
and [what] ought to be in a single vision … [that] ces is one feature of cultures (Wallace, 1961).
gives distinctive cultural ideologies their singular
psychological power” (LeVine, 1984, p. 78). In summary, anything that is “cultural” is by defin-
4. All cultures are unique, but none are totally differ- ition shared, not unique to an individual person,
ent from all others. Rather, cultural communities although individuals can (and usually do) embody their
tend to share some characteristics with other com- own version. Such customs, beliefs, or their expression
munities, including their geographic neighbors, in the material culture of a people are further con-
due in part to common historical roots and the nected to other aspects of their “cultural place”
diffusion of ideas and technologies. Thus, for (Weisner, 1997, p. 178) in a way that makes sense – at
example, the sub-Saharan region of Africa is char- least to its members – and thus they are resilient in the
acterized by many similar customs and beliefs face of historical or contemporary pressures. For this
related to children, along with important intra- reason, culture change does not generally entail the
regional differences. Similarities among cultures are simple replacement of one set of ideas or practices by
also related to common ecological demands and another, but rather includes an active process of
subsistence systems: simple agricultural societies, renegotiation and integration (de Haan et al., 2020;
for example, have been shown to socialize children Raghavan et al., 2010). Finally, although the thinking
more strongly toward obedience, in contrast to and behavior of individuals is inevitably culturally
hunting-and-gathering societies that encourage framed, every cultural place is populated with a variety
autonomy in their children (Barry et al., 1959). of individuals with their own specific temperaments,
5. Cultural constellations of beliefs and values are personalities, life histories, and other attributes that
resilient in the face of historical and ecological enable them to interact with and contribute to – rather
change. For example, the Dutch custom of putting than simply replicate – the complex whole.
babies outside for naps, even in cold weather, was Anthropological theories of culture, as applied to
documented in the 1960s by Rebelsky (1967); in the study of children’s development, differ from pre-
the 1990s, we found Dutch parents carrying out vailing practice in psychological research in that
the same custom, with the same rationale (Super anthropologists insist upon collecting cultural infor-
et al., 1996). Studies of immigrant families gener- mation as well as psychological information from
ally find strong continuity in beliefs and practices, individual study participants. Although more general
in addition to a variety of accommodations to the background factors such as regional differences, socio-
 APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE 3

economic contrasts, or philosophical heritage are multiple disciplines concerned with the development of
acknowledged, researchers from the anthropological children in cultural context (Harkness & Super, 1994;
tradition typically do not consider such information Super & Harkness, 1986, 1999). We originally devel-
sufficient to explain individual patterns of beliefs, oped this construct in order to deal with both variabil-
behavior, and development. Further, post hoc explana- ity and thematicity evident in the multiple studies that
tions of group differences that refer to ostensibly uni- we carried out on child development and family life in
versal frameworks such as individualism versus a Kipsigis village of Kenya in the 1970s (Harkness &
collectivism tend not to fare well in light of other per- Super, 1985; Super, 1976). Two overarching principles
spectives that might better be called upon to under- reflect the influences of cultural anthropology (e.g.
stand a particular pattern of findings. Whiting & Whiting, 1975) and developmental psych-
ology (e.g. Bell, 1968): First, that a child’s environment
is organized in a non-arbitrary manner as part of a cul-
Synergistic theories of culture and child
tural system; and second, that the child’s own dispos-
development: the Developmental Niche and
ition, including a particular constellation of attributes,
Parental Ethnotheories
temperament, skills, and potentials, affects the process
Although anthropological theories offer a variety of of development.
explanations for cultural differences in parenting and At the center of the developmental niche (see
child development (Barry et al., 1959; LeVine et al., 1994; Figure 1) is the individual child. In one sense the niche
Whiting & Edwards, 1988; Whiting & Whiting, 1975; can be described only for a single child in one cultural
Whiting & Child, 1953), they rarely explore exactly how place, with his or her particular set of inherited charac-
children learn to be members of their cultures. From a teristics (Super & Harkness, 1994). Nevertheless, the
developmental perspective, however, culture is relevant framework is equally useful for deriving a generalized
only as it is experienced by the growing child. Several description of recurring patterns characteristic of par-
related, synergistic models of culture and child develop- ticular cultural communities. Surrounding the child are
ment have been formulated in order to address this gap. the three major subsystems of the developmental niche:
With slightly different emphases on the individual, the (1) Physical and social settings of the child’s daily life;
family, or the biosocial nature of development, each of (2) Customs and practices of care; and (3) The psych-
these models suggests a way to acknowledge both the ology of the caretakers. The physical and social settings
environment’s organization as a system and the immedi- in which the child lives provide a scaffold upon which
acy of that organization for the individual child. daily life is constructed, including where, with whom,
Weisner’s ecocultural model emphasizes the mundane and in what activities the child is engaged. Culturally
routines of daily life, taking place in specific activity set- regulated customs and practices of childcare are par-
tings and formulated through the larger cultural ecology, ticularly meaningful activities that are repeated over
as primary influences on psychosocial development time and embedded in the settings of the child’s life.
(Weisner, 1997, 2002). The biocultural model developed Many such customs or habits are so commonly used
by Worthman (2003, 2010) focuses on the by members of the community and so thoroughly inte-
“developmental microniche,” which represents the actual grated into the larger culture that individuals need not
experience of the child in relation to the child’s personal particularly rationalize them. To members of the cul-
characteristics and capacities. The developmental micro- ture, they seem obvious and natural solutions to every-
niche is the primary site of behavioral and biological vul- day problems, developmental requirements, or social
nerability, adaptation, and resilience. In what follows, we needs; their cultural nature becomes evident only when
will describe our own theoretical contributions – the viewed from an outsider’s perspective or when chal-
Developmental Niche and the further elaboration of lenged in practice. Often these customs express deeply
Parental Ethnotheories – and review several examples of held beliefs and related emotions about the nature of
how these frameworks have been, could have been, or the child and about the proper functions of a good par-
could in the future be applied to challenges facing chil- ent. Finally, the psychology of the caretakers includes
dren and families in a variety of contexts. both the personal characteristics and the cultural beliefs
(or ethnotheories) of parents and others (e.g. teachers
or health care providers).
The Developmental Niche
The three subsystems of the developmental niche –
The Developmental Niche is a theoretical framework settings, customs, and caretaker psychology – share
for the integration of concepts and findings from the common function of mediating the child’s
4 S. HARKNESS AND C. M. SUPER

Figure 1. The Developmental Niche.

developmental experience within the larger culture. change in China, including the introduction of the
Three “corollaries” of this basic framework specify one-child policy, quickly led to changes in the settings
further how it works in children’s lives. First, the of children’s daily lives, as large families were replaced
three components of the developmental niche operate by very small ones. This in turn has been associated
together with powerful though often incomplete with changes in customs and practices of care, and
coordination as a system. In an internally stable cul- with parental psychology (Strom et al., 1995; Zhu,
tural environment, customs of care express or 2010). The “Snugli,” a novel cloth child-carrier inspired
“instantiate” parental ethnotheories about the child, by the inventor’s time in Africa (Moore, n.d.), quickly
and they are further supported by the physical and became popular and eventually “customary” in the US
social settings of daily life. Of course, the environ- after being introduced in 1966. Along with imitators
ments of children and their families are rarely com- and successors, it has significantly altered the physical
pletely consistent, but looking across the three and interactive experience of millions of American
subsystems of the niche tends to make evident cul- infants, as they now traveled in a vertical position
tural themes that are found in multiple domains. rather than horizontal in a baby carriage (Little et al.,
“Contemporary redundancy” (Super & Harkness, 2019). Change that directly affects one subsystem of
2002) – when themes are repeated through a variety the niche can have a cascade of effects on the other
of experiences during the same developmental period subsystems, as the whole system “works” to reestablish
– creates “messages” (Mead, 1972) which contribute equilibrium. This second corollary accounts in part for
to the child’s emerging model of the world. In add- the qualification “incomplete” in the first one, regard-
ition, “thematic elaboration” (Super & Harkness, ing coordination. The developmental niche is an “open
2002) – when the repetition and cultivation of core system” in the formal sense (van Bertalanffy, 1968), as
systems of meaning take place across developmental opposed to being isolated and self-contained. An open
periods – can embed the stuff of culture even more system can be influenced by objects, activities, or ideas
deeply into the psyche (Super & Harkness, 1997). from outside its boundaries. Subsystems may be slow,
There are many extended examples of such “cultural however, in accommodating to a new element absorbed
complexes (Whiting & Whiting, 1960) in the literature elsewhere in the Niche. A mother may enroll her infant
on culture and development (e.g. Hess & Azuma, in daycare to pursue needed employment despite her
1990; Menon & Shweder, 1994; Rogoff et al., 1993; ambivalent beliefs about the effect on her child’s emo-
Shwalb & Shwalb, 1996; Super et al., 2020). tional development; it may take considerable time for
The second corollary of the Developmental Niche her beliefs and her other behaviors to become consist-
framework recognizes external sources of change, ent with the practice. The issue of integration across
which may initially affect one subsystem more than the the Niche becomes greatly more complicated for immi-
others. For example, rapid economic and political grant parents, as they discover a myriad new beliefs and
 APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE 5

circumstances in their adopted country, which may or hierarchical order (Harkness & Super, 2006) and
may not be consistent with the beliefs and customs they linked indirectly although powerfully to behavior (see
bring with them (de Haan et al., 2020; Raghavan et al., Figure 2). At the top of the hierarchy are the most
2010). The complexity of accommodation by all relevant general, implicit ideas about the nature of the child,
parts of the Niche determines how rapidly the whole parenting, and the family. Below this triad are ideas
system approaches a point of equilibrium. about specific developmental domains, such as infant
Finally, the third corollary of the Developmental Niche sleep or social development. These ideas are closely
framework reiterates the developmental principle that the tied to ideas about specific appropriate practices, and
child at the center of the niche plays an active role in its further to imagined child or family outcomes. These
construction and change over time. A temperamental ideas are translated into behavior only as mediated by
disposition toward shyness or boldness, for example, will factors such as characteristics of the child, situational
lead to different social reputations and involvement in variables, and competing cultural models and their
different kinds of peer groups although the nature of related practices. The final results can be seen in
those differences will depend on the culture. In another actual parental practices or behaviors, and in actual
example, parents may adapt customs of care to young child and family outcomes.
children who show a developmental delay, and the inter- This heuristic model has the benefit of pointing out
active parent–child relationships may consequently two stages where interventions can be targeted – spe-
develop along particular paths as the child matures cific beliefs and actual practices – while also highlight-
(Keogh et al., 2000). ing their connections to other components. Typically,
interventions to change parenting behavior are aimed
Parental ethnotheories at practices, often without awareness of the parents’
ideas that are the foundation of their practices in the
In much of our more recent research, we have focused
first place. Alternatively, interventions may try to edu-
on parents’ thinking about themselves, their children,
cate parents about specific aspects of development,
and their families, especially as their ideas are shared
without sufficient attention to linked beliefs or actual
with others in any given cultural community. We
implementation of new practices that might follow.
refer to these constellations of ideas as “parental eth-
Furthermore, even the most sincere efforts at inter-
notheories” to indicate both their cultural nature and
their systematic relatedness to other ideas and practi- vention may fail to account for situational factors that
ces. Parental ethnotheories are cultural models of interfere with parents’ ability to put their best ideas
parenting and child development (Harkness & Super, into optimal practice. Finally, some interventions to
1996) held by parents and others who care for chil- help families at risk of child abuse or neglect also
dren (the model can also be extended to older indi- implicitly devalue parents’ customary practices of care
viduals who receive care from others). Like customs – thus affecting the emotional component of the
of care, parental ethnotheories are often implicit, psychology of the caretakers.
taken-for-granted ideas, and they have strong motiv-
ational properties (D’Andrade, 1992). Parents’ beliefs Applications of the Developmental Niche and
– especially those that are shared with a community parental ethnotheories to interventions for
in a given time and place – are powerful influences children and families
on the two other subsystems of the developmental
niche. That is, within the constraints imposed by the As a theoretical framework, the Developmental Niche
wider environment, parents make choices about the and the concept of parental ethnotheories have been
best ways to take care of their children, and these widely cited and applied in a multitude of research
choices tend to follow culturally recognizable patterns. projects. Less recognized, however is the potential use-
As we have written elsewhere, parental ethnotheories fulness of this framework for interventions to support
thus function “as the nexus through which elements children and families, reflecting the general chasm
of the larger culture are filtered, and as an important between the worlds of academic research and of pro-
source of parenting practices and the organization of gram development. Two large-scale efforts, however,
daily life for children and families” (Harkness & may serve as examples. In both cases, consideration of
Super, 2006, p. 62). the child’s culturally structured developmental niche,
Parental ethnotheories can be represented by a parental ethnotheories, and the use of mixed methods
heuristic model in which beliefs are organized in a – a core feature of the framework (Harkness et al.,
6 S. HARKNESS AND C. M. SUPER

Figure 2. Parental ethnotheories.

2005; Super & Harkness, 1999) – proved crucial for had more conduct problems, and were more likely to
understanding the results. suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome than did
boys in the control group, who were not relocated. In
a National Public Radio interview (Greene, 2014),
Limitations of a classic randomized control trial:
Ronald Kessler, one of the researchers evaluating the
Moving to Opportunity
program, offered an explanation for this apparently
As we have described elsewhere (Harkness & Super, paradoxical result, after noting that the Randomized
2015), the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) project – Control Trial (RCT) design of the study was not
started in 1994 under President Clinton – was an meant to explain the reasons for particular effects, but
experimental Federal program to move single mothers rather just whether any effects occurred. As he put it:
out of public housing in inner cities and into more … we were fortunate that we had field workers go
affluent areas in the suburbs. The hope was that these into the neighborhoods, observe what was going on;
young families would thrive in a more favorable and they have some insights into why they think
these differences [between results for girls and boys]
environment where both job prospects and a good
exist.” As he further explained, the field workers
education would be easier to access. Unfortunately, noticed that “little girls were embraced by the
however, a follow-up study (Kessler et al., 2014) found neighborhoods and seemed to have better
mixed results: although the move appeared to be interpersonal skills, whereas the boys somehow were
beneficial for girl children, it was associated with thought to be a threat by the community, so they
were pushed away and in fact in some cases, had
negative results for boys, who were more depressed,
 APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE 7

worse things happen to them.” Kessler concluded that to explore and even “act up” (p. 103). They tended to
“the kinds of qualitative evidence that our research maintain “risky ties” to their old neighborhoods, includ-
team came up with” suggested that the boys “couldn’t ing with family members and friends involved in
make a really good adjustment,” but again cautioned,
“We just don’t know because it wasn’t one of the criminal activities. Peer group acceptance in the new
things we had prepared ourselves for at the beginning. low-poverty neighborhoods also differed by gender, as
boys were sometimes regarded by other youth as threats,
Kessler’s statement sums up a core limitation of while girls more readily made friends in their new sur-
traditional randomized control trial evaluations: they roundings. As Briggs et al. (2010) summarize,
are set up to discover whether a treatment (or interven-
tion) has an effect, not why or how the effect is accom- Regardless of where they lived, they [boys] were facing
pressures to fight, deal drugs, and join gangs. Avoiding
plished. For testing the effects of a particular these threats required extraordinary effort on the part
medication on health outcomes, this approach makes of both the boys and their parents, and it often meant
some sense (although finding “pure” cases to compare that the youth spent much of their time indoors,
is sometimes easier said than done). For more complex isolated from potentially bad influences (p. 103).
social interventions, however, the utility of the findings Applying the framework of the Developmental
depends on understanding the context of the interven- Niche, it is clear that the differences between boys’
tion, including how it affects the developmental niches and girls’ physical and social settings and routines of
of children and their parents. Unfortunately, such daily life, their mothers’ ethnotheories, and how they
information is often left out of “rigorous” scientific were perceived by others in their new surroundings,
research such as randomized control trials, with the contributed to their differing outcomes. Further, the
rationale that it is not essential and would greatly low rate of acceptance of the MTO program by those
increase costs. The result is that conclusions about the families who were randomly selected, and the fact that
meaning of the results are left largely to speculation, the great majority soon moved back to neighborhoods
with no guidance on how the program in question more similar to their old ones, suggests that the
might be modified to produce better results or, at a “opportunities” of the new suburban setting were
minimum, how it might avoid doing harm to the par- counter-balanced by qualities that the mothers them-
ticipating families and their children. selves did not find a comfortable fit with their own
Anecdotal reports by field workers are not an customs of care and parental ethnotheories, among
adequate substitute for the systematic collection and other problems. In summary, the MTO program, by
analysis of qualitative data such as interviews or omitting consideration of how the children’s develop-
ethnographic observations. In the case of the MTO mental niches would be affected by changes in the
intervention, however, other subsequent, separately larger environment (the second corollary of the niche
funded studies using mixed methods did uncover framework), failed to capture key determinants of
some plausible explanations for why girls who were both its successes and failures.
moved to lower poverty communities fared better on
average than their peers in the control group, whereas
the opposite was true for boys. As Briggs et al. (2010) Using the Developmental Niche: the Bangladesh
report, a key change for the girls was freedom from project to reduce childhood diarrhea
fear of sexual harassment, coercion, and rape, which Like MTO, the Bangladesh project designed by Zeitlin
were endemic in the public housing communities they et al. (1990) to address a serious and prevalent child
left. Even so, their mothers continued to expect health problem, was set up as a randomized control
daughters to stay closer to the protection of home trial. Five contiguous villages in lowland Bangladesh
than they expected of their sons. Based on extensive were chosen for the intervention, while another site
interviews with families who moved (and stayed) in with similar ecological and health indicators was des-
low-poverty neighborhoods, compared to those who ignated as the control. In contrast to the MTO evalu-
did not move or who moved back, these authors ation, however, cultural considerations informed all
report, “Nearly all of the experimental-group girls still phases of the Bangladesh study. As explained in the
living in low-poverty areas, as well as their mothers, introduction to one report (Ahmed et al., 1994),
described feeling confident that they are safe from
Many hygiene interventions that attempted to reduce
these risks, while most living in high-poverty areas childhood diarrhoea failed to demonstrate any effect,
described living with pervasive harassment” (p. 96). In mainly because they were culturally unsuitable and
contrast, boys in the experimental group were less often developed without understanding the problem
closely monitored by their mothers, who expected them in the target community … The researchers sought to
8 S. HARKNESS AND C. M. SUPER

identify local adaptive behaviours that could be customary practice of wiping their rinsed hands on
modified by a trial process and implemented as their sari provided a constant source of contamination
culturally acceptable and low-cost interventions (p. 1). within easy reach of their infants, as did the daily
The Developmental Niche framework was adopted at bath in polluted water. The physical and social set-
the beginning of the study, as it was well suited to the tings of daily life, as systematically observed by the
documentation of proximal causes of diarrheal infections researchers, clearly showed infants’ exposure to patho-
among infants and young children in this context. gens as they sat on the mud floor of the dwelling with
In the decades after independence (1971), infant piles of animal excrement close by. Having mapped
diarrhea and malnutrition, closely linked problems, out the pathways of infection, including the local
were major health issues in rural Bangladesh. In the beliefs and customs that supported them, the research-
villages selected for evaluation and intervention in this ers and staff were then able to develop an intervention
project, the prevalence of infant diarrhea was over to address the behaviors that were direct causes of
60% at one year of age, and the median weight-for- infant diarrhea and consequent malnutrition. To the
age was more than two and one-half standard devia- initial amusement of mothers in the study, the project
tions below the international norm (Ahmed et al., also introduced a new, more sanitary physical setting
1994). Maternal interviews, non-intrusive behavior for the infants by adapting a manger for calves to a
observations, and the collection of demographic and playpen, keeping infants safely apart from sources of
health information on the infants – all key methods contamination on the floors of the homes. In summary,
for studying the developmental niche (Super & integration of information guided by the Developmental
Harkness, 1999) – provided data for quantitative ana- Niche framework allowed researchers in the Bangladesh
lysis identifying behaviors associated with positive study to establish a reliable and replicable strategy for
outcomes, mostly having to do with specific routes of reducing diarrhea, related developmental delays, and
contamination through unsanitary practices. A “Clean presumably deaths in this population.
Life” program of maternal education was developed in
collaboration with community members and leaders.
Discussion
The intervention focused on ground sanitation, food
sanitation, and personal hygiene, all involving behav- The MTO project and the Bangladesh childhood
ior change or affordable materials (Ahmed et al., hygiene project both provide evidence for the useful-
1991). Evaluation after only five months indicated ness of the Developmental Niche framework, includ-
substantial health gains: Severe malnutrition, which ing parental ethnotheories, for interventions to
had been 10% higher at baseline in the intervention support children’s health and development. More
group than in the comparison group, was now 30% broadly, both projects also illustrate the seven features
below (Ahmed et al., 1993). Crucially, the post- of culture described above, in ways that are sometimes
intervention evaluation identified (through direct more obvious than others. First, the “shared” aspect
observation) which specific family behaviors linked of culture is a critical piece of the picture in both
the interventions with positive results, thus allowing projects, although it was explicitly recognized only in
subsequent refinement of the intervention. Ultimately, the Bangladesh project. Defining a population such as
the program was adopted by BRAC (BRAC.net), a single mothers living in urban public housing (the
national (now international), nonprofit NGO, and group targeted by the MTO project) as sharing a
applied widely across the country. “culture” may seem unfair or even racist, but ignoring
Because one of the present authors (CMS) was dir- their shared ideas and practices took away what could
ectly involved in this project, application of the have been a valuable means to meet their needs as
Developmental Niche framework, along with mixed they transitioned to a new environment.
methods, was an obvious strategy for both under- A similar point can be made in relation to the
standing and addressing the health challenge. second feature of culture, namely that it organizes
Maternal interviews provided the researchers with meanings and actions across widely diverse domains.
insights into their parental ethnotheories regarding Briggs et al. (2010) later analysis of the MTO pro-
infant health and care. For example, it was found that gram, in its exploration of why outcomes for girls and
most of the mothers were not aware of germ theory, boys in the MTO diverged, weaves together a wide
and therefore assumed that simply removing dirt or range of different themes and observations, from girls’
excrement with water was sufficient for keeping them- fear of sexual harassment to boys’ pressure to join
selves and the infant clean. Relatedly, the mothers’ gangs and prove their emerging manhood. In the
 APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE 9

Bangladesh study, we see how mothers’ ideas about infant care may have re-surfaced after the intervention
hygiene were relevant to their actual practices of care- ended; but the holistic nature of the intervention,
taking. The absence of knowledge about germ theory affecting multiple features of the culture, was probably
that was identified among these mothers also illus- a safeguard.
trates the third feature of culture as including implicit The sixth feature of culture as both a shared envir-
commonly shared ideas, including ideas that were in onment and the internal representations that members
contradiction to scientific knowledge. In this regard, of a culture carry in their own minds can readily be
the Bangladesh intervention was probably effective in applied to both MTO and the Bangladesh project.
part because changes in thinking and behavior were Interestingly, the planners of the MTO seem to have
publicly endorsed by local community leaders. recognized the environment of public housing as a
The fourth feature of culture, that each culture is kind of culture, but they did not extend this aware-
unique but none are totally different from all others, ness to the ways that mothers and their children
becomes especially important when we think about thought or felt about their lives in that context –
the generalizability of interventions carried out in one rather, it appears that they assumed (in retrospect,
specific context. In the case of MTO, the initial wrongly) that any rational person would gladly accept
impetus for this massive intervention came from one the offer of better living conditions, and would pros-
successful program in Chicago. Reviewing the history per in the new environment. In contrast, the designers
of how the MTO program was developed, Briggs et al. and implementers of the Bangladesh project
(2010) note that there were many unanswered ques- approached the intervention based on a definition of
tions about how well this model would apply to the culture that included both environment and beliefs, as
new multi-city intervention. As they comment, illustrated in the quote above (Ahmed et al., 1994).
“Beyond these questions was the greatest unknown: The last feature of culture, that it is not a larger
Given the social dynamics the families were leaving version of personality, needs to be taken into account
behind, how might relocating actually affect their in any intervention for children and families, in the
lives?” (p. 53). In addition, the much larger scale of sense that a “one size fits all” approach is often not a
the MTO program entailed a certain “leap of faith” good fit for some of the intended targets, even within
about how the counseling component of the original a recognizable cultural community. Ronald Kessler,
program would be implemented. In the case of the quoted above regarding the MTO program, seems to
Bangladesh project, the design of the project itself – have recognized this when he commented to Greene
investigating ethnotheories and practices before plan- (2014) that similar interventions in the future should
ning the intervention – provided a guide to interven- provide programs “that help these new families inte-
tions in other similar contexts, at least in south Asia. grate optimally into better neighborhoods” rather than
Even if major differences were found, it seems likely “just putting a roof over their heads.” In contrast, the
that the findings from the Bangladesh project could Bangladesh project involved local home visitors work-
provide at least some starting hypotheses regarding ing individually with families to fine-tune the interven-
where to look for the causes of childhood diarrhea. tion more closely to their particular situation, and, at
The resilience of cultural beliefs and values, the several points in the development of the intervention,
fifth feature of culture, is evident in both positive and using feedback from families to improve the program.
negative ways in the MTO program. Mothers who Of course, it could be (and frequently is) argued
moved with their children from urban public housing that such an individualized approach is simply not
to low-poverty, mostly suburban areas, brought with feasible for large-scale interventions like the MTO
them expectations about their daughters’ needing pro- program. A counter-example to this argument is pro-
tection, and a more autonomy-granting approach to vided by the New Hope project, a privately funded
raising their sons. The children themselves also experimental program implemented in the mid-1990s
brought their own expectations to the new environ- in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to lift full-time low-wage
ment, for both better and worse – the girls were sur- workers out of poverty as well as providing health
prised but comforted by their new freedom from insurance and childcare subsidies for people who
sexual harassment, while the boys apparently felt less needed them (Duncan et al., 2006). Participants
at home after moving, and thus sought to maintain chosen for the intervention in this randomized control
old ties that corresponded more closely to their sense trial were offered a standard set of benefits; in add-
of themselves. In the Bangladesh study, we do not ition, each participant was assigned a “project repre-
know whether earlier beliefs regarding hygiene and sentative” (a purposefully respectful term) who
10 S. HARKNESS AND C. M. SUPER

worked individually with them to address the specific Anthropologist, 61(1), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.
challenges they faced. The evaluation team, including 1959.61.1.02a00080
anthropologist Weisner used qualitative and ethno- Bell, R. Q. (1968). A reinterpretation of the direction of
effects in studies of socialization. Psychological Review,
graphic methods to learn how the New Hope program 75(2), 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0025583
affected participating families and control group fami- Briggs, X., de, S., Popkin, S. J., & Goering, J. (2010). Moving
lies. Based on both quantitative and qualitative data, to opportunity: The story of an American experiment to
the researchers were able to discern who the program fight ghetto poverty. Oxford.
worked well for, and who did not reap the D’Andrade, R. G. (1992). Schemas and motivation. In R. G.
D’Andrade & C. Strauss (Eds.), Human motives and cul-
expected benefits.
tural models (pp. 23–44). Cambridge University Press.
de Haan, M., Koeman, M., & de Winder, M. (2020).
Conclusion Reshaping parental ethnotheories of Dutch-Moroccan
immigrant parents in the Netherlands: networking in
At the beginning of this paper, we quoted Lewin’s fam- multiple worlds. New Directions in Child and Adolescent
ous dictum that “There is nothing so useful as a good Development, Number 170, March 2020, pp. 171–194.
Duncan, G. J., Huston, A. C., & Weisner, T. S. (2006).
theory.” As we reflect on the theories and their actual
Higher ground: New hope for the working poor and their
or potential applications for children and families children. Russel Sage.
described here, it is reasonable to ask whether – in this Greene, D. (2014). Study: Boys report PTSD when moved
case at least – good theories are always useful. The fact out of poverty [radio]. In NPR (Producer). Morning
that both the Developmental Niche and Parental Edition: NPR.
Ethnotheories have been cited thousands of times in Handwerker, W. P. (2002). The construct validity of cul-
tures: Cultural diversity, culture theory, and a method for
the international research literature would suggest that ethnography. American Anthropologist, 104(1), 106–122.
they have met the criteria for both “goodness” and https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2002.104.1.106
“usefulness” for understanding the cultural construction Harkness, S., Hughes, M., Muller, B., & Super, C. M.
of child development. In the two examples above, we (2005). Entering the developmental niche: Mixed meth-
have attempted to illustrate how these conceptual ods in an intervention program for inner-city children.
In T. Weisner (Ed.), Discovering successful pathways in
frameworks could also be useful for the design, imple-
children’s development: Mixed methods in the study of
mentation, and evaluation of interventions to support childhood and family life (pp. 329–358). University of
children and families. In the end, though, theories are Chicago Press.
only useful insofar as they are used. It remains to be Harkness, S., & Super, C. M. (1985). The cultural context of
seen whether recognizing the essential role of culture gender segregation in children’s peer groups. Child
in children’s development can be more effectively and Development, 56(1), 219–224. https://doi.org/10.2307/
1130188
comprehensively translated into action.
Harkness, S., & Super, C. M. (1994). The developmental
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