Research Report No.9  Social Influences on the Development of Thai Children                      in Napa Village, Cholburi, No.2                                               by                        Chancha Suvannathat(1967)               _____________________________________________________________________        This  was summary of the second of a series of studies conducted  by  the Bangkok Institute forChild Study regarding social influences  of  the development of Thai children in the village of Thailand.The  main  assumption  was  that early childhood experiences in the family  was  the foundamental basedof the growth and personality development  in later life. Purpose of the Study         There were three main purposes. Firstly, to explore the pattern of  child  - rearing practices in Napavillage. Secondly, to examine  the  problems  of  child - rearing practices the mothers in countered  with. Finally, to examine the influence of social change on child - rearing practices. Methodology        Sample  The  sample  of  this  study  were  parents  and  their  children  from  Napa community.Twenty - seven out of seventy - nine first grader in the community school were selected as subjects onthe  bases of their variation in school achievement and social adjustment.        Instrument  The  data  were obtained mainly by interviewing the  mothers  of the first grader. Theintensive interview schedulas were  focused on general pattern of child rearing from birth to school age, the  problems  of child rearing the mothers encountered with, and the  impect  of  social  change on theways of bringing up their children.  The  interaction  between  the child and his (her) school environment was  also  studied  by  means  of  observing  the  child's behavior in  learning and playing situations.        Findings.  The  findings  were  described  in  14  chapters the  conclusion of each chapter was asfollows :        Prepare for the Parents' Role         In  Napa community to bear and child was viewed as desirable and  natural  part  of woman's life.Prangancy was regarded to bring about  enthusiasm  and happiness to the family. With respect to thechild's  sex  preference, sons were greatly preferred to danghters, especially  the  first child. More over,every subject mother expected her child  to be a source of security for parents particularly during old age.        Procedures of Handling the New-Born Child         After  the  delivery, the midwife pursued the typical procedures of  handling a new -born chilld :cutting the umbilical cord, bathing  the  baby,  putting the baby on the basket, and burying the placenta.All processes of child care were usually quided by the mothers own or  in-law  parents  and  other  older relatives. Although most sampled mothers  did  not  understand any reason for the traditional practiceprocedures,  they  willingly accepted those practices. Because they  believed  that  certain practices couldgenerated luck and prosperity  to  their children. Above findings pointed out that the Napa mothers firmly  believed  that  various  procedures  of handling the new-born  child were antecedents of the child'spersonality characteristics.        Nursing and Weaning         Breast  feeding was the normal practice among the Napa mothers.  They  claimed  the  mothers' milk was the best for their infants and  more econmical for their families. The Napa mothers began tobreast- fed the infants a few days after delivery on account of their beliefs  that the milk at first few days(yellowish milke) was not good enough  to  feed  the  infant. At the beginning, the breast - fed milk might not  be  sufficient  for the infant. Therefore, most supplemented it with mixed honey and warm water.         The  Napa  mothers usually held their babies in their arms while  breast  feeding.  There was nofeeding schedule. The mothers would  nurse whenever they wanted.         After  on month old the babis were fed with some digestive food  like  mash  banana  as  supple  - mentary food. The sampled mothers  reported  no  difficulty  in  feeding their bebies. The babies could adapted well to the supplementary food.         Normally  the  mothers  in  Napa  village initiated weaning when  their  children  were  between  1 1/2 to 2 years of age. They often  mentioned for the beginning of the next pragnancy as their reason for weaning.         Most  Napa  mothers tended to employ severe and such techniques,  for  instance,  putting  some bitter  on  their  mipples in order to  discourage  their  children's  attempt to nurese. Nevertheless, many mothers reported for high success in weaning one week.        Eating and Sleeping Training         Because  of  their  lack  of knowledge about nutrition, the Napa  mothers  regularly  paid  more attention  to the amoount than to the  quality of food. Eventhough the mothers realized that youngchildren  needed  selective  food in a number of mealtimes, they were unable to  set out the menu fortheir children.         So  the  allowed their children to eat what they wanted. As for  eating  manner  training,  the  Napamothers tended to use permissive  discipline  which  might  affectes  the  flexibility in child-rearing pattern, a unique characteristic of Thai child rearing.         Relating  to sleeping training, the Napa children commonly slept  in  the  some  bedroom  with  their parents. It was trouble some in  training  a  child  to sleep  alone.  Because  of the Napa villages' bedrooms  were  ordinarily  small.  Even  more  the mosquits not was  necessary to prevent them frommosquito bites. More than half of the  sampled  mothers  reported that at 7 year of age their childrencould  sleep sparatly from their parents if the mothers set out the sleeping  area  for.  At  9 - 10 year ofage, children could make the sleeping  place by themselves and sleep separatly from their parents.        Freedom of Physical Movement         From  the  infancy period up to preschool age, the Napa mothers  handled  their  children with thepermissive child - rearing practice  in  various  ways.  On  the  other  hands,  they guarded their young children   closely  by  the  reason  of  their  anxiety  about  their  children's  safty.  The  children'sphysical movement were carefully  watched by the mothers or the older siblings.         The  findings  above  seemed  to be inconsistant with subsequent  responses  of  the  same mothers.Many subject mothers reported that  they  expected  their children to be more independent and more self-  reliant  at  the  earlier age. In this study, there were no evidence  that the mothers' control of theirchildren's physical movement would  determined the mother's training of the children's independence.         However,  with  a  small  group  of  sampled  mothers,  the data  revealed  a trand of greaterflexibility in child - rearing practices  among  the  Napa  mothers who had high anxiety about theirchildren's  safty, and control their children's physical movement.        Toilet Training         Another event in the child's life was elemination training. The  primary  aim  of  such training was toteach the child to be neat and  clean and to develop healthy habits. The growth of the child was the  main reason  for  elemination training responded by all Napa sampled  mothers.  The  majority of them initiatedtraining bladder and bowel  controls  when the child was 1-2 years old. Most mothers reported no difficulty in training their children to get rid of waste products in  a proper spot. None of them mentionedabout the children's emotional  problem during training. Although all Napa mothers emphasized on the importance of training their children to control on free elemination,  most of them used no pressure at allin training their children.        Sources of child Socialization         In  Napa  family, parents, grandparents older siblings and older  relatives,  all  of them successivelyplayed roles in socializing the  children. Parents  were  clearly of central importance. Grandparents especially  the grandmother had the supporting role in child care and  rearing  while the grandfather wasresponsible for training his young  grandchildren  to  have  working skills. Older siblings helped their parents  look  after  and guided their younger siblings on account of  their  past  experiences.  Older relatives  were  other  adults who  functioned as parents' helpes in the family.         In  school, the teacher was a key person. People in the village  paid  highly  respect  to him (her).Privilege, authority and trust  were granted to the teacher to socialize the children in academic and  moralprinciples. Friends from school were another socializing agent  who indirectly their peers.         Buddhist   temple  was  another  important  source  of  children  socialization.  As  a part of theirduties, the abbot and monks were  determined  to teach the Napa children to behave morally. Therefore, the  Napa  temple  was the typical source which provided the children  with religious knowledge andmoral training        Values to be Emphasized in Bringing up the Child.         In  this  study  it  was  found that the mothers in Napa village  stove  to  inculcate  in  their childrenfour specific types of moral  values.  The moral values which they emphasized were : (a) control of aggressive  behavior;  (b)  obedience  and  repect  to authority; (c)  gratitude  and  loyalty;  and (d)kindness, generosity and a sense of  sacrifice.         All  of the sample mothers dispproved of any type of aggression.  They  realized  the  importance oftraining children to control their  aggressive  behavior since they were young. In case of the child got involve  in  a  quarrel  or  fight  with neighborhood children, most  mothers  in  Napa  village tended to getaway their children from the  scene  with  out fighting bad. They also forbidded their children to  hurt ortorture any animate being.         Obedience  and  respect to anthority and seniority were stressed  in  socializing  the  child.  Thesampled mothers mentioned that the  inculcation  of  this  value  in  children would help them discipline their  children.  In  the  family, the child was taught to obey and  sespect to their granparents, parents andolder relatives. In school, he  was  taught  to  pay  highly respect  to  his teachers.         In Napa community, the obedient child could brough his family to admiration. In  Napa villege, itwas considered that to be a good person was  to  show  gratitude and loyalty. The child was taught notonly to be  grateful to persons (grandparents, parents, older relatives, teachers  and  other  supportors) but  also  to  extend his gratitude to other  animate  beings (oxen and cows) as well as to inanimate things.(rice  and books).         Another  group of moral values consisted of kindness, generosity  and  a  spirit  of sacrifice werealso accentuated in socializing the  Napa  Child. The child was taught to express these values to persons as  well  as other animate beings through physical, verbal and mental  conducts.         All  these  moral  values  were mainly inculcate in the child by  teaching, advocation example set bythe parents and participating for  direct  experiences.  However  the  mothers  reported that colding, threatening of corporal and beating were employed in dealing with any  kind of socially deviant behavior.         Independence and Responsibility Trainings.         The  majority of the sampled mothers were more permissive toward  the child's dependence in theearliest years. During preschool years, most  mothers  reported  that  the  children  were  trained  to have capability  of  eating,  bathing,  dressing  and  going  to  sleep by  themselves.  This  group  of  mothers considered  the child's self- feeding  to  be  the  most  necessary for self - reliance because the  mothersfrequent leaved their children at home during the day.         Until  nearly  school  age  that  the mothers' tolerance of the  child's  dependency was reduced.They trained their children to help  themselves  about  daily  tasks  like keeping the body clean, washing clothes and tidy up the belongings.         With respect to the tactic of independence training, the mothers  usually  employed  both direct andindirect trainings. The mothers's  modelling  was  frequently  revealed. It was found that independence training  before  the  child enteried school was aimed at reducing the  mothers'  household  burden. Thebenefit for the child's personality  development was only unintentional aim.         The Napa mothers considered reponsibility training was necessary  for  their  children since theywere young. The mothers would praise  their  children  for their attention rather than their fulfillment of the assigned household tasks.         Regardless  of sex difference, the household tasks were assigned  to  both  the  boys  and  the girls.The girls tended to receive the  household responsibility at earlier age than the boys. The household  taskswhich the Napa mothers usually assigned to their children were : (a)  Picking  up  things for their parents(b) sweeping and mopping  (c)  taking  care of the younger siblings, and (d) helping to prepare  food andsetting a meal tray.         Responsibility  training  for  household  tasks  was reported to  initiate  by  means  of  direct teaching,  setting  a  model for the  children  to  imilate.  Only  on a special occasion that the mothers praised  and  rewards  their children directly. It should be pointed  out  here  that  many  Napa  mothers tended to praise their children  indirectly  through other adults in the family they reasoned that the  direct praise  to  their  children might pushed their children to be  over  confident.  With  regard  to  punishment the mothers tended to  apply  psychological  punishment to the girls but physical punishment  to the boys.         Sex Training         In  this  study, it was found that the Napa mothers had negative  attitude  toward  sex  matters.  Sex was  generally  not a topic of conversation  among  children.  All  mothers  absolutely unpermitted  theirchildren to be wise to the parents' sexual interaction. On the  other  hands,  they  were  aware of theimportance of sex training in  connection with modesty and sex inhibition. Most sampled mothers had permissive attitude toward clothing for bodily reserve. However they  were  more  severve  with directingtheir children to hold back their  sexual  drive.  To their opinions, playing with the genital area was inappropriate. Therefore they attempted to discourase their children  from indulging with such sex play.         The  sampled  mothers expected their children to have capability  of  controlling  sex  behavior sincethey were young. They tended to  demand  the  sexual  serve  more  of girl than boy because the sexual virture  of the girl was closely linked with the honor of her family  members.         The   majority   of   the   Napa  mothers  agreed  that  general  sex information should  be advocated  to children. Nevertheless, the  specific  knowledge  about  the  process  of  reproduction might  be  unneccessary.  They believed that their children could kind out when they were older.         With  regard  to  sex-reserved  training the Napa mothers mainly  attempted  to  avoid  using  wordsor mentioning about sex matters to  their children. Some misleading concepts of sex might be employedto  aim  at reinforcing fear and deterring the child's any kind of sexual  desire.  The  physical  and psychological  punishment were reverely  imposed on the child for misconduct.         Parents' Altitudes Toward Children's Education on Vocation.         The  data  from  interview  indicated  that  the parents of Napa  village desired to be knowledgable.They showed high respect for the  community educational sources : the temple, the school and theteacher.         The  sampled  parents  realized the importance of education as a  mean  to  good vocation ratherthan the benefit to child development.  Most  of  them  expected  their children to have as much educationas  they  could  attain in order to be white collar workers. The parents  frequenly showed negative attitudetoward labored type of works.         Futhermore,  the  Napa parents considered the family's financial  ability  to be the most essentialfactor ralating to their children's  educational achievement.         Major Poblems and Changes in Child - Rearing Practices.         Two  major  problems  concerning the way of bringing up children  was  mentioned by the sampledmothers. Caring for the child's illness  was  one  of  the  important  problems  associated  with thefamily's  financial  condition. Another problem which confronted the mothers in  every stage of childrearing was the problem of child discipline         All  sampled  mothers agreed that there had been some changes in  child  -  rearing  practices fromthe past to the present generation.  Three  important  changes  were mentioned : the utilization of modern medical  technology  in  child  birth, the mothers' more attention to  sanitation  of  their  children  and changing  in pattern of child -  rearing practices.         With  regard  to  child - rearing practices all mothers admitted  that  on these days parents tended toused more permissive pattern of  child  rearing  than  before. The different opinions and behavior of  the  children  wer  more  acceptable  and  physical  punishment  was  imployed less.         These  sampled  mothers  expected  their  children  to be self -  reliance  as  earlier  as their oldergeneration would expected. The  children's school achievement was also their prominant expectation.         The  mothers  revealed  that  their  had  been  some  changes in  personality  of  the children in thepresent generation. They seemed  to  be  more  intelligent,  responsible,  active,  curious  about sex matters and also better adjusted to the strangers. On the other hand, these children showed more self -willed and disobediant.         The  sample  mothers  came to the conclusion that their children  had  gained  benefits  from variouschanges, especially the change in  child - rearing practices.         The   relationship  of  Child  -  Rearing  Practices  to  Social  Adjustment of the first year in School         It could be concluded the Napa children in the sample group came from   the   families   with  close  relationship  particularly  the  relationship  between  the  mother  and the child which occupiedwith  love  and warmth. These sample children were assumed to be fulfilled  with  the  human  basic needs.  For  this  reason,  they entered to  unfamiliar   environment   at   school   with  confident  and trust.  Furthermore,  these  children  had  been  socialized  to  respect for  authority  earlier  in  the  home.This moral value lessened them to  accept  their  teacher's disciplines. All children seemed to have no difficulty  in  adapting  to the teacher's expectation. In fact, the  expectation  of the teacher meshedsmoothly with those of the parents  though   the   tactics   of   training   might  be  different.  Both socialization  agents  agreed to aimed at preparing the Napa children  for good life in their environment.                              SWUHOMEPAGEBack to Behavioral Science Research Institute