Parental Nurturance in the Standard Cross- Cultural Sample: Theory, Coding, and Scores

In recent years attachment theory has matured into a wide-ranging con-ceptual framework with sufficient power to explain important features of individual and social variability across societies. In the research reported here, the empirical work directed by attachment theory is used to expand existing codes to measure more fully those aspects of parent-child interac-tion that facilitate or retard the child’s development. This article presents the coding system and scores on parental nurturance for each of the soci-eties of the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS). Articles (in press) will present all the evidence on parental nurturance available in the standard bibliography as well as new research examining ways that parental nurtur-ance may be incorporated into models integrating environmental, psycho-logical, and social processes