Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-jhrpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-17T18:43:51.603Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Yes, culture, diversity, and mixed methods are essential

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2026

Thomas Weisner Open the ORCID record for Thomas Weisner [Opens in a new window]
Thomas Weisner*
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychiatry and Anthropology, UCLA: University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA tweisner@ucla.edu www.tweisner.org
*
*Corresponding author.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Childhood is a cultural project with shared goals, constant adaptation, and struggle; child well-being requires the engaged participation of a child in the cultural activities deemed desirable in that community. The evidence and conceptual frame of this paper show the remarkable varieties of childhoods and cultural contexts found around the world, which affect attachment and shared intention/coordinated joint engagement theories.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 49 , 2026 , e282
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Konner, M. (2010). The evolution of childhood: Relationships, emotion and mind. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
LeVine, R. A., & Miller, P. (1990). Commentary on special topic issue: Cross-cultural validity of attachment theory. Human Development, 33, 73–80.Google Scholar
Serpell, R., Sonnenschein, S., Baker, L., & Ganapathy, H. (2002). Intimate culture of families in the early socialization of literacy. Journal of Family Psychology, 16(4), 391–405.10.1037/0893-3200.16.4.391CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weisner, T.S., (2015). Childhood: Anthropological aspects. In Wright, J. D. (editor-in-chief), International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (2nd edition, Vol 3, pp. 451–458). Elsevier.10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.12032-XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisner, T. S. (2017). The socialization of social trust: Cultural pluralism in understanding attachment and trust in children. In Cassaniti, Julia L., & Usha, Menon (Eds.), Universalism without uniformity. Explorations in mind and culture (pp. 135–151). University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226501710.003.0009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisner, T. S. (2021a). Still the most important influence on human development: Culture, context, and methods pluralism. Human Development, 64(4-6), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1159/000512943 Google Scholar
Weisner, T. S. (2021b). Sociocultural Context and Methodological Pluralism Matter for All Developmental Science. [Peer commentary on the article “Joint Attention in Human and Chimpanzee Infants in Varied Socio-ecological Contexts” by K. A. Bard, H. Keller, K. M. Ross, B. Hewlett, L. Butler, S. T. Boysen, & T. Matsuzawa]. SRCD Monograph Matters. Retrieved from https://monographmatters.srcd.org/2022/03/30/commentary-weisner-86-4/.Google Scholar