Symposium Focuses on Children and Culture

By Catherine Walsh

Special to the Gazette

More than two dozen people from around the country and abroad gave presentations on topics as diverse as teenage pregnancy among lower-income groups in the U.S., the resiliency of disadvantaged black youth in South Africa, and the "co-sleeping" habits of Swedish parents and children at a symposium and other events marking the retirement last week of Professor Robert LeVine.

The activities reminded LeVine of the rituals of the Gusii people he had studied in Kenya, at least in some respects. "Among the Gusii you pay your respects with eating and drinking -- and with a minimum of words I might add," quipped LeVine, who is the Roy E. Larsen Professor of Education and Human Development at the Graduate School of Education and a professor of anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

The North American ritual honoring the retiring academic involved not only food and drink, but also many words.

The unifying theme of the symposium was that one cannot understand individual psychological development without understanding the cultural context in which children grow up.

Teenage Parents, Resilient African Youth

Society's fear of the sexuality of poor minority teens led to reports in the 1980s of an "epidemic" of teen pregnancy in lower income groups that turned out to be false, said Jill Taylor, a professor at Simmons College.

"Unfortunately, the 'social problem' explanation became so widely accepted that poor teens accepted it themselves," Taylor said in her presentation.

Her study of 14 teenage mothers -- seven black girls and seven white or Puerto Rican girls -- found that teen pregnancy was more of a "social problem" for the white and Puerto Rican girls than for the black girls. For instance, five of the seven black girls immediately told their mothers that they were pregnant, whereas few of the white or Puerto Rican girls did the same.

Taylor also discovered that the main concern of the black girls and their mothers was the practical way pregnancy would affect their schooling, while reputation mattered most to the white and Puerto Rican girls. That focus on the social stigma of pregnancy helped fuel the national misconception about teenage pregnancy.

LeVine encouraged symposium participants to ask themselves how social scientists participate in the construction of myths. "That so many of us believed that there was an epidemic of teen pregnancies is a disgraceful episode in American social science," he said.

Priscilla Dass, a former student of LeVine's who does clinical work at the Cambridge Hospital, reported on her study of resiliency among disadvantaged black youth in South Africa. She said that the youth who achieved academic success had certain things in common, including close family ties and a strong spirituality.

"Because of their family relationships and spirituality, these youth possessed goals and initiative, as well as a sense of agency and self-esteem," Dass said. "I found them to be responsible, committed, and generous."

Americans should not be quick to judge the "co-sleeping" practices of Swedish families, said Barbara Welles-Nystrom. An American who earned her Ed.D. under LeVine at the Graduate School of Education and now teaches at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Welles-Nystrom said that children are welcome in their parents' bed until the age of 7 or 8. One respondent to a survey that Welles-Nystrom conducted, a mother who worked outside the home, said that co-sleeping was a way of "filling up our love tanks" since she saw so little of her children during the day.

"From the American perspective, Swedes look quite pathological in their co-sleeping habits," Welles-Nystrom said. "I am suggesting they are not."

LeVine is the co-author of Child Care and Culture: Lessons from Africa (1994) with Sarah LeVine, his research partner and wife, and with other colleagues. He is also the co-author (with Merry I. White of Boston University) of Human Conditions: The Cultural Basis of Educational Development (1986).

Sarah LeVine spoke at the symposium about her work with women, infants, and children in Kenya and Nepal.

Toward the end of the symposium, LeVine spoke of the need to find funding for students from developing countries interested in human development.

But Justus Ogembo, a member of the Gusii tribe in Kenya who earned a Ph.D. at Harvard and teaches at the Graduate School of Education, reassured LeVine. Explaining that the Gusii believe that people who die move to a different state of being -- one in which they can influence their children to found new lineages -- Ogembo told symposium participants: "We are not gathered here for a funeral but to commemorate a life. . . . We will carry forth the message you imparted to us."