Beliefs about children's emotions influence decisions and judgments about the behavior of self and others. Emotion beliefs tend to vary by culture and almost always reflect and sustain the values and customs of a community of people sharing a culture. This study examined two cultures living in close proximity to each other and their beliefs about children's emotions.
The study included 106 Mapuche and 165 non-Mapuche parents and teachers living in Chile. Mapuche is one of the oldest original cultures in the Americas. It's also a culture that has retained many of its customs and beliefs, which include a deep respect for the land. All 271 participants completed a questionnaire about eleven emotion-related beliefs as applied to children. Six of the eleven beliefs reflected cultures in the United States: beliefs about the value and cost of certain emotions; control of emotion; knowledge of children's emotion; manipulation of emotion; and emotional autonomy. Five other beliefs reflected Mapuche culture: value of being calm; controlling fear specifically; interpersonality of emotion; learning about emotion from adults; and regulation through nature. For all items on the questionnaire, participants were asked to choose the item that best reflected their beliefs and to indicate on a six-point scale their extent of belief (completely disagree to completely agree). Responses were then analyzed for similarities and differences (a) across cultures existing within a region (Mapuche, non-Mapuche), (b) according to role (parent, teacher), and (c) by geographical location (rural, urban).
For United States-derived beliefs, several interactions with culture were significant. These related to both role and location. Mapuche parents believed more strongly than non-Mapuche parents and Mapuche teachers that children can control their emotions. City-dwellers – both Mapuche and non-Mapuche – felt more strongly than rural non-Mapuches in the importance of knowing children's feelings. All five of the Mapuche beliefs were significantly stronger for Mapuche than non-Mapuche participants. Two of these beliefs were significantly different for location. Participants in urban settings believed in the importance of Kumech (attentiveness, compassion, kindness) and nature as a regulator significantly more than those in rural areas.
At the local level, these findings call attention to the importance of non-Mapuche teachers being sensitive to the emotion-related beliefs of Mapuche families. At a more global level, the findings call for “an expanded view of emotion-related beliefs, including beliefs that children can control fear and be calm, that emotion-related values include attending to the needs of others, and that two ways of controlling emotion are through learning by listening to/watching elders, and by being in nature.”
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