RESEARCH REPORT NO.7               "Social Influences on the Development of Children in the                            Villiage of Napa, Chonburi, NO.1"                                               by                              Chancha  Suvannathat (1966)  Purpose of the study        The Bangkok Institute for Child Study has studied the effects of social influences on the development ofvilliage children in different parts of Thailand. The purpose has been to find out what factors within thecommunity, the school, the family and the children themselves facilitate or impede the adjustment of thesechildren to school situations. The assumption is that the child’s experiences prior to entering school have agreat influence on subsequent behavior in the school environment. Scope of the study         The full report in Thai on the first village studied, the village of Napa, which is about ninety five kilometerssoutheast of Bangkok, is divided into two volumes. The first volume focuses on an exhaustive survey of thevillage’s geographical and ecological patterns, social and economic structure, the family and kinship systems,the rights and obligations of children within these systems and the beliefs, values, and customs of the villagers.The second volume focuses on certain aspects of child-rearing practices and their relationship to thepersonality development of the children. Methodology         In this research study, the researchers were divided into two teams, the village team and the school team,which worked closely together. Collection of the data was accomplished mainly by means of interviews andobservation. The village team was responsible mainly for studying and exploring the village life in Napa asthoroughly as possible. The Thai village life is closely influenced by the temple (Which is commonly called“wat”), for the monks have significant roles in shaping the villagers’ ideas, thought and their way of living.Accordingly, the village team began their study of the village through interviewing the monks concerning theirnonsecular life, their attitudes and ideas towards the village itself, villagers and education. Subsequently thisteam spent a great deal of time studying 42 households. The used three main interviewing schedules,concerning (1) household compositions and backgrounds (2) religious practices and ceremonies and (3)socio-economic structure. In addition, some extra case studies were done to illustrate clearly the kind of familyrelationships existing in the village. Informal interviews also were used with a number of vilagers whorepresented different occupations. The team actively participated with the villagers in many ceremonies inorder to obtain supplementary data.         The school team studied a sample of twenty-seven first grades in the village primary school, their parents,and two teachers of the grade. The study of the school included observations of teaching methods,teacher-pupil relationships, and the teachers’ attitude towardtheir children. With respect to studying the family,the main focus was on child-rearing practices and their relationship with children’s personality and socialadjustment. Account was also taken of the aspirations of the parents for their children, and the attitudes ofthese parents towards the school, their children, and also towards education ingeneral. The study of thechildren temselves involved assessment of their school achievement and school adjustment, the attitudestoward the school and toward their peers, their role in the family, their fears, and their beliefs and aspirations.   Findings Geographical and ecological characteristics of the village.         The village of Napa is an administrative entity comprising twelve hamlets each varying in size from aboutthirty-five to seventy-five households. Eight of these hamlelts has fifty or less householdls, which is the modalpattern. The total population of these hamlets. According to the census in 1960, was about 4,100. Eachhamlet, then, is relatively small in terms of number of households and population. The pattern of settlementreveals in small clusters in the paddy fields near the plots owned by the householders, but these clusters areby on means very close to each other. Exceptions to this pattern are the settlements near the roads, the wat ortemple and the school, where shops and houses are more clustered.         Of the twelve hamlets of Napa village, hamlets numbered 2,6 and 12 are more out standing then theothers in that each of these hamlets has a wat and a school which are centers of social, religious, andeducational activities of the nearby villagers as well as of those villagers from some of the adjacent hamlets ofother villages. Hamlet 2, the focal point of the community of hamlets 1 – 5, was chosen for this study.         Most of the people in this community still still earn their living today by growing rice, although maysupplement rice-growing by raising other crops such as coconuts, sugar palm, cassava, and vegetables. Onlyvery few households cultivate these annual cash crops exclusively. The majority of these farmers cultivate theirown land and may, in addition, rent smaall tracts from others, There are in the community some people whoown substantial amounts of land and rent out part or all of this, but these are only a minority and the extent offtheir ownership is not very large. It in estimated that about one-fourth of the households are landless, Some ofthese, however, cultivate rent-free land belonging to parents or relatives and may eventually become ownersthrough inheritance; others are really landless and have to rent land from others to cultivate. A minority isengaged in trading and shopkeeping and has no interest in farming. Many households combine wage labourwith a little farming on rented land. These households as well as the poorer farmers also engage in palm-sugarmaking, which is an important supplementary means of livelihood. The temple and its plance in the community        The temple (wat) plays an important part in the community life of Napa. The monks assume an importantrole at the collective community-wide religious ceremonials held at the wat and also at various rites of passagesuch as head-shaving of the baby, top-knot cutting of the child, formal marriage, funeral and cremation, Thereis a mutually beneficial relationship existing between monk and layman, but this relationship at the same timeis asymmetrical; that is, it is characterized by formal show of respect and use of special language forms on thepart of the layman, and by avoidance of intimate involvement and familiarity on the part of the monk, and by theinteraction between monk and layman being limited to certain culturally prescribed situations. One importantway to accomplish socialization of the children is the village is for the parents to send their boys to serve theneeds of the monk.         Yet, the research findings reveal that the children of Napa today scarcely receive any formal instruction inBuddhism else-where than in school. The ‘dekwat’ or temple boys receive no formal religious instruction fromthe monks they attend. The attendance of these boys at a few rites is obligatory. Village children, by being onlookers and helpers at all village rites and by accompanying parents to community religious festivals, areintroduced early to Buddhistic ritual and thus indirectly learn the meaning of ritual acts as well as bits ofBuddhist Mythology and doctrine. This method of learning perhaps explains in part why many villagers asadults, while familiar with religious and ritual procedures, are often either unable to give systematic accounts oftheir meanings or give quite diverse interpretation of ritual ats. Family patterns         Concerning the structure of the family and household, the major significance of the village team’s analysislies in the examination of the implications of certain observation relating to residence, marriage andinheritance. Except for a minority, married couples initially reside with parental families. Some of them, aftervarying lengths of time determined by inheritance and economic circumstances establish residence sparatefrom parents in the same locality. A fair proportion. However, continue in an extended family situation and intime become the successors of parents as heads of families. An analysis of the family patterns reveals thisone important fact about family life in Napa : the majority of persons spend at least part of their life in a multipleor extended family groups which often consists of three generations. One implication of this is that the earlystage of married life and the rearing of the first few children must be influenced by parents of the marriedcouple.         The analysis of the geographical limits of marriage and of residence shows that the dispersion of kin is notwidespread but largely confined within the boundaries of the village. Most marriages (monogamous) takeplace within this community, and because of flexibility in choice of residence there results residential mobility.In Napa village it self, continuity of residence after marriage in the hamlet of birth has been possible for about40% of the people.         The nuclear family of Napa today consists of husband, wife and unmarried children; the nuclear familywith dependent relatives comprises a larger kin circle. The extended family is the family in which parents livethe families of married children, whereas the limited extended family is the one in which parents live asdependents with unmarried children.         A marked feature of household composition in Napa is the presence of a large numger of ‘dependent’ kinliving in the household temporarily or for extended periods of time.         Characteristically, children who are cared for and arised by someone other than their true parents areprovided for principally in these two ways in Napa : (1) the child is raised by a brother or sister of the actualparents (2) the child is raised by his grandparents while the actual parents are living elsewhere. Althoughtemporary or permanent adoption is usually confined to families of close kin, it is not unusual to find adoptionof even more remotety related children. Role differentiation         The analysis of role differentiation in the Napa family reveals a difference in the amount of freedom ofmovement allowed the two sexes. Men have greater privileges and play a more extensive part in communityactivities, while women shoulder heavy responsibilities in familial roles especially in relation to child-rearing. Attitude toward pregnancy.         The Napa mothers reveal through their interview responses their positive feeling about pregnancy,especially the first one. Failure to have children is not a great concern to the childless couple since adoption isa customary proactive. When asked about preferences for sex of baby, they prefer boys to girls for a numberof reasons. The main reasons given are to have boys means they can perpetuate the parents’ name, andwhen they become monks, thereby being able to accrue the greatest amount of marit to their parents. As agroup, these mothers hold in common the expectation that a child born into the family will be the source oftheir security when they are old. Procedures of handling the new-born.         Birth of children generally takes place in the home. The mothers in the Napa sample who reported givingbirth at home were in every instance attended by a midwife. The fundamental procedures of handling the newborn, such as cutting the umbilical cord and bathing, are done by the midwife. Beliefs are prevalent that whatthe parents do after the conception but fefore the birth of a child could affect the nature of the nature of thechild later, the kind of person he will eventually become. The data indicate that the majority of Napa mothersare willing to follow the practices and instructions passed on the form of old customs and traditions as muchas possible. Belief and practices concerning the preservation of the umbilical cord and disposal of theplacenta are still retained. In general, beliefs or practices which portend favorable consequences for the newborn is wholeheartedly accepted, The expression of these beliefs provide some insight into the expectation ofthe child of Napa parents. Nursing and weaning.        The data on nursing and weaning reveal a general pattern of high oral indulgence. Most children arebreast fed on demand schedule and are weaned quite late. The techniques used by the Napa mothers inweaning their children are mostly severe but they claim that good results are obtained in a short time. Despitethe beliet among professional psychologists that breast-feeding has an influence on the child’s personality,the evidence from Napa does not show any significant relationship between breast feeding and such behavioras aggression and eating problems. Toilet-training.        The majority of Napa mothers consider that toilet training has a effect on the child’s personality. Theirexplanations center around the notions of propriety and clean-liness as part of the wholesome personality thatthe child should have when he grows up. As far as the effects of severity in toilet training are concerned, ourdata reveal clearly that on the whole the Napa mothers do not put a great deal of pressure on their childrenduring toilet training and accordingly do not get upset when they do not succeed within a short period. This, inturn, does not produce any emotional upset over the matter on the part of the child who is being trained. Inculcation of Values         The Napa parents have high regard for four significant moral values which they strive to inculcate in theirchildren. These are (1) nonaggression (2) obedience and respect for authority and seniority (3) gratitude and(4) kindness, generosity and sacrifice. Independence training.         Eventhough independence training is not much stressed by the parents, training in limited areas such aseating, bathing, and going to bed, is given to the child since he is about 3 years old. However, the mothers donot set high expectations for the child to achieve mastery in these independence tasks in the fullest sense.Responsibility training is closely connected with the division of labor in family activities. Eventhough there is noclear demarcation between boy’s and girls’ task responsibilities, girls usually shoulder house-hole jobs andassume social responsibility in the home earlier then they boys, who are called on the engage in economicactivities at a later stage. In general, it is found that positive reinforcement, through praise and other rewards,and a gradual process of teaching are often used by the Napa mothers in training the child to becomeself-reliant and responsible. Sex training.        Generally, the Napa mothers have a negative attitude toward sex and sex matters. The Napa society doesnot consider ‘sex’ suitable as a general topic of family conversation. The mothers realize the importance ofsex training in relation to two main areas : (1) modesty training and (2) sex inhibition (with regard tomasturbation and sex play with other children). The majority of the mothers have a more permissive attitudetoward sex training in the first area than in the second area.         Eventhough the mothers set some expectations for their children to control their sex behavior sinceinfancy and early childhood, they are rather permissive toward this matter in consideration of the fact that thechildern at these ages are still too naive. As early childhood passes by, the mothers’ attitude becomes stricteron this issue. There is a tendency for the mothers to demand more of girls than boys in controlling sexbehavior. Parents’ attitudes toward education.         Owing to recent social changes the aspirations of the parents for their children have risen. The parentsexpress a strong hope that through education their children would become better off than they were. Changes in child-rearing practices as viewed by the mothers.        Considerable changes from what existed in the past generation are reported by the mothers. All of themothers interviewed mention some changes in child rearing practices. The majority of Napa mothers thinktheir own practices differ from those of the previous generation, and they are on the whole in favor of the newpractices. Eventhough the mothers agree that there are considerable changes in the community lately andthink should adapt their child rearing practices to suit these changes, they are stilly not very sure of whatshould be done.         In conclusion, the parent-child relationship in the Napa family is ver permissive and warm. The child’sbasic needs are well satisfied. Accordingly, he enters his first year at school with ease. The family fullysupports the school’s expectations and standards, and thus there is no conflict between family and schoolstandards in general. The child’s socialization experiences have taught him since a very young age to acceptthe parents’ and other aults’ authority. The parents themselves have a high respect for the teacher. Thisusually assured that the child is prepared psychologically even before his first year of school attendance.Despite the fact that the family and the school may differ in the way of teaching children, these two significantsocializing agencies still hold the same definite goal of directing their children towards becomingwell-accepted members of the Thai society.                              SWUHOMEPAGE Back to Behavioral Science Research Institute