Cultural Context of Parenting and Infant Mental Health: Overview

According to the bioecological model of development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2007), all infants and parents live and develop in a network of relationships in the society in various cultural contexts. Cultural context incorporates values that are learned and attitudes that are shared among groups of people. It includes beliefs, meanings, customs, ideas, language, and norms. Parenting can be defined as the raising of children and all the responsibilities and activities that are involved in it – a process that happens within the cultural context. When parenting is successful, it leads to child well-being when physical, cognitive, and social-emotional-spiritual development is nurtured in developmentally appropriate ways (The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, 2021). However, not only relational, but also spatial contexts affect early development (Zeanah, 2018); in other words, parenting interacts with the concrete environment of children and parents.