In the article, Cultural Variation in Infant’s Sleeping Arrangements, Morelli et al. examined Americans and Mayans’ decisions, and explanations regarding sleeping arrangement for their child.
Across the cultures, sleeping arrangements can reflect a child’s rearing goals, and values for interpersonal relations. In the U.S., where its society emphasis individualism, it encourages people to be interdependent from its members. As a result, American families “[believe] that it [is] important for their infants [to develop] independence and self-reliance” (Morelli et al., 1992, p.609) at a young age. Since, “cosleeping is often seen as a bad habit that it is difficult to break or as a practice that impedes the development of independence” (Morelli …show more content…
In Mayan culture, the families value interpersonal relationships, as the children never sleep alone (Morelli et al., 1992, p.612). In general, “most Mayan babies [go] to sleep when their parents did or [fall] asleep in the midst of ongoing social activity, which it is the social time where the whole family goes to sleep together without any routines (Morelli et al., 1992, p.611), During the night, the mothers only need to breastfeed their babies when they need it. For the Mayans families, sleeping arrangements are not an issue until a newborn baby takes over the current child’s place. Therefore, the finding suggests that the Mayan families’ decision to move infants out of the parents’ room is due to the children’s readiness for …show more content…
Similarly, to the Mayan Cultures, they practiced cosleeping, because they believed that it is important to monitor a baby. Since I was a child, I always slept with my parents, or near them. As a grew older, I moved to my sisters’ room. Even though, we shared the same room, we had our own beds. Although, I find that Morelli et al. research is legitimate, they do describe the difference sleeping arrangement between cultures, but the question of dependence still leave me ponder. Being born in China, but raised in North America, I feel that sleeping and feeding arrangements could both be a factor, but I also believe that other factors can affect
Across the cultures, sleeping arrangements can reflect a child’s rearing goals, and values for interpersonal relations. In the U.S., where its society emphasis individualism, it encourages people to be interdependent from its members. As a result, American families “[believe] that it [is] important for their infants [to develop] independence and self-reliance” (Morelli et al., 1992, p.609) at a young age. Since, “cosleeping is often seen as a bad habit that it is difficult to break or as a practice that impedes the development of independence” (Morelli …show more content…
In Mayan culture, the families value interpersonal relationships, as the children never sleep alone (Morelli et al., 1992, p.612). In general, “most Mayan babies [go] to sleep when their parents did or [fall] asleep in the midst of ongoing social activity, which it is the social time where the whole family goes to sleep together without any routines (Morelli et al., 1992, p.611), During the night, the mothers only need to breastfeed their babies when they need it. For the Mayans families, sleeping arrangements are not an issue until a newborn baby takes over the current child’s place. Therefore, the finding suggests that the Mayan families’ decision to move infants out of the parents’ room is due to the children’s readiness for …show more content…
Similarly, to the Mayan Cultures, they practiced cosleeping, because they believed that it is important to monitor a baby. Since I was a child, I always slept with my parents, or near them. As a grew older, I moved to my sisters’ room. Even though, we shared the same room, we had our own beds. Although, I find that Morelli et al. research is legitimate, they do describe the difference sleeping arrangement between cultures, but the question of dependence still leave me ponder. Being born in China, but raised in North America, I feel that sleeping and feeding arrangements could both be a factor, but I also believe that other factors can affect