The International Study of Parents, Children, and Schools (S. Harkness & C. M. Super, PIs) is a collaborative international research project focused on parents’ cultural belief systems, their instantiation in cultural practices of childrearing, and the relationship between these beliefs and practices at home and teachers’ beliefs and practices in the organization of children’s learning environments at school. This is a mixed-methods study, based on an elaboration of the “developmental niche,” a theoretical framework for understanding the interface between child and culture.
The following research teams conducted that study, contributing essential effort and ideas as well as data: In Italy, Giovanna Axia, Sabrina Bonichini, and Ughetta Moscardino; in the Netherlands, Sara Harkness, Charles Super, Hesje Andersson, Marjolijn Blom, Haneke Vrijenhoek Diekhuis, Jarissa Dijkstra, Karina Grijzen, Mariël Jacobs, Lieke Meijer, Edwin Mons, Reina Rijsdam, Nathalie van Tijen, Ellen van der Vlugt, and Saskia van Schaik, with much appreciated advice from Gedolph and Rita Kohnstamm; in Poland, Andrzej Eliasz, Agnieszka Carrasco-Zylicz, and Piotr Olaf Zylicz; in Spain, Jesús Palacios, Victoria Hidalgo, María Carmen Moreno, Alfredo Oliva, and Moisés Ríos Bermúdez; in Sweden, Barbara Welles and Caroline Tovatt; in the United States, Sara Harkness, Charles Super, Xin Feng, Marcia Hughes, Archna Khattar, Amy Miller, Beth Muller, and Parminder Parmar.
Significant funding was provided by the Spencer Foundation of Chicago, the National Science Foundation (award number BNS 83–11084), and a Fulbright Senior Fellowship to Charles M. Super.
Publications:
Super, C. M., Harkness, S., Bonichini, S., Welles, B. Zylicz, P. O., Ríos Bermúdez, M., & Palacios, J. (2020). Developmental continuity and change in the cultural construction of the “difficult child: A study in six Western cultures. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 170, 43-68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cad.20338
Harkness, S., Super, C. M., Bonichini, S., Ríos Bermúdez, M., Mavridis, C., van Schaik, S. D. M., Tomkunas, A., & Palacios, J. (2020). Parents, preschools, and the developmental niches of young children: A study in four western cultures. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 170, 113-142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cad.20343
Feng, X., Harkness, S., Super, C. M., Welles, B., Ríos Bermúdez, M., Bonichini, S., Moscardino, U., & Zylicz, P. O. (2020). Parents’ concepts of the successful school child in seven western cultures. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 170, 143-170. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cad.20337
Harkness, S. (2011). From Emotional Closeness to Emotional Intelligence: What I Learned about Italian Cultural Models from Vanna. In S. Bonichini & M.R. Barone (Eds.), Sviluppo e salute del bambino: fattori individuali, sociali e culturali – In recordo de Vanna Axia (pp. 151-157). Padua, Italy: Coop. Libraria Editrice Universitá di Padova.
Harkness, S., Zylicz, P. O., Super, C. M., Welles-Nyström, B., Ríos Bermúdez, M., Bonichini, S., Moscardino, U., & Mavridis, C. J. ( 2011). Children’s Activities and Their Meanings for Parents: A Mixed-Methods Study in Six Western Cultures. Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 25, No. 6, 799-813
Harkness, S., Super, C. M., Rios Bermudez, M., Moscardino, U., Blom, M. J. M., Rha, J.- H., Mavridis, C. J., Bonichini, S., Huitrón, B., Welles-Nyström, B., Palacios, J., Hyun, O.-K., Soriano, G., Zylicz, P.O. (2010). Parental Ethnotheories of Children’s Learning. In D. F. Lancy, J. Bock, and S. Gaskins (Eds.), The anthropology of learning in childhood (pp. 65-81). Lanham, Maryland: Alta-Mira Press.
Super, C. M., Axia, G., Harkness, S., Welles-Nyström, B., Zylicz, P.O., Ríos Bermúdez, M., Bonichini, S., Parmar, P., Moscardino, U., Kolar, V., Palacios, J., & McGurk, H. (2008). Culture, temperament, and the “difficult child” in seven Western cultures. European Journal of Developmental Science, 2(1-2), 136-157.
Harkness, S., Blom, M. J. M., Oliva, A., Moscardino, U., Zylicz, P. O., Rios Bermudez, M., Feng, X., Axia, G., & Super, C. M. (2007). Teachers’ ethnotheories of the “ideal student” in five western cultures. In J. Elliott & E. Grigorenko (Eds.), Western psychological and educational theory in diverse contexts. New York: Routledge.
Harkness, S., Blom, M., Oliva, A., Moscardino, U., Zylicz, P. O., Rios Bermudez, M., Feng, X., Axia, G., & Super, C. M. (2007). Teachers’ ethnotheories of the “ideal student” in five Western cultures. Comparative Education, special edition on “Western psychological and educational theory in diverse contexts” (Guest Editors, J. Elliott & E. Grigorenko), 43(1), 113-135.
Harkness, S., Moscardino, U., Rios Bermudez, M., Zylicz, P.O., Welles-Nystrom, B., Blom, M., Parmar, P., Axia, G., & Super, C.M. (2006). Mixed methods in international collaborative research: The experiences of the International Study of Parents, Children, and Schools. Cross-Cultural Research, 40(1), 65-82.
Harkness, S., Super, C. M., Axia, V., Eliasz, A., Palacios, J., & Welles-Nystrom, B. (2001). Cultural pathways to successful parenting. Newsletter of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development, 1(38), 9-13.
Harkness, S., Super, C.M., & van Tijen, N. (2000). Individualism and the “Western mind” reconsidered: American and Dutch parents’ ethnotheories of the child. In S. Harkness, C. Raeff, & C.M. Super (Eds.), Variability in the social construction of the child (pp. 23-39). New Directions for Child Development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, No. 87.
Harkness, S., & Super, C.M. (1997) “An infant’s `three R’s.” Natural History, October, p. 45.
Super, C. M., Harkness, S., van Tijen, N., & van der Vlugt, E. (1996). The “Three R’s of Dutch child rearing and the socialization of infant state. In S. Harkness & C. M. Super (Eds.), Parents’ cultural belief systems: Their origins, expressions, and consequences (pp. 447-466). New York: Guilford Press.