Cross-cultural perspectives on parent-infant interactions

Each day more than three-quarters of a million adults around the world experience the joys and heartaches just as they do the rewards and fears of becoming parents to a newborn infant. Each infant is an individual, of course, as is each parent and each parent-infant dyad.This chapter summarizes selected aspects of our research, and portions of the text have appeared in previous scientific publications cited in the references. Supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH/NICHD, USA, and an International Research Fellowship in collaboration with the Centre for the Evaluation of Development Policies (EDePO) at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London, UK, Bornstein for Lockman & Tamis-LeMonda 29 funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 695300-HKADeC-ERC-2015-AdG) as well as the NAP-SUG program of the Nanyang Technological University. The authors also thank Dr. Andrea Bonassi for assistance. Marc H. Bornstein, Child and Family Research Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Infant Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Suite 220, 6555 Rock Spring Drive, Bethesda MD 20817, U.S.A. Email: marc.h.bornstein@gmail.com or gianluca.esposito@ntu.edu.sg or gianluca.esposito@unitn.it