Chapter Eight Children's Avoidance of Interrupting Others ’ Activities in Requesting Help

Publication date: 2015 Source:Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Volume 49 Author(s): Omar Ruvalcaba, Barbara Rogoff, Angélica López, Maricela Correa-Chávez, Kris Gutiérrez To be able to collaborate skillfully, people need to coordinate well with others, taking into account how their actions fit with those of their partners. This is a key aspect of an approach to learning called Learning by Observing and Pitching In, hypothesized to be common in many Indigenous-heritage communities of the Americas. This chapter considers cultural values that emphasize considerateness and awareness of how one's actions impact others such as the Mexican cultural value of respeto and cultural differences in children's efforts to avoid interrupting others’ activity. US Mexican-heritage children showed more evidence of avoiding interrupting the ongoing activity of an adult when they requested help, compared with European American children from families with extensive schooling experience. Most of the Mexican-heritage children's requests for help that gave evidence of avoiding interruption were made nonverbally, which may facilitate unobtrusive requests. There were no significant differences among children from two US Mexican-heritage backgrounds varying in experience with Western schooling and likely experience with Indigenous-American practices, suggesting that the Mexican cultural value of respeto and associated considerateness is widespread even among US Mexican-her...
Source: Advances in Child Development and Behavior - Category: Child Development Source Type: research