Culture Matters: The Importance of Cultural Knowledge

and Understanding When Working with

Families Who Have Experienced

Homelessness

Nedra R. Robinson, MA. Ed

Sharon Henry Blythe

What is culture?

“Culture is a shared system of meaning, which includes values, beliefs, and assumptions expressed in daily interactions of individuals within a group through a definite pattern of language, behavior customs, attitudes, and practices.”

The Changing Face of the United States: The Influence of Culture on Early Child Development 2008

We all have a culture!

Culture is the context we use to communicate and understand rules and expectations within our family and community.

Our culture is how we live our lives.

Why of Culture

How of Culture

What of culture

When of Culture

The What of culture What we experience through our senses. What we can see, taste, smell, hear and feel.

The How of culture How we live our lives. How we view education, how we view authority, how we view medicine, how we use money.

The Why of culture Why, our values, and beliefs, religion or spirituality.

The When of culture When historical and current events shape our nation and society.

Individual culture

Family

Values Beliefs Language Attitudes

Dress Food Communication style

Group culture

Mainstream American Culture

School Church

Political affiliation

Age group

Family Structure

Employment

Cultural Consciousness

is being aware of and understanding culture in people’s lives.

It is the ability to step back from the world as you understand it and are accustomed to, to recognize and acknowledge there are human differences.

Cultural Competency

Cultural awareness leads us to the lifelong journey of .

Cultural competency is the ability to think, feel, and act in ways that acknowledge, respect, and build on ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity. (Lynch & Hanson,1993)

Hidden Rules

Hidden Rules are knowing the unspoken cues and habits of a group by which we live.

These Hidden Rules are taught to us by family and the community and guide our decision-making and behavior.

Hidden Rules

There are Hidden Rules about dress, food, how to move around, and money. There are Hidden Rules about time, language and even love.

Ruby Payne explains that to successfully move from one socioeconomic status to the next, you need a person or mentor to teach you the hidden rules.

Self-Awareness

is the first step of the journey to cultural competency.

Self- Awareness

Our values, beliefs, cultural practices as well as individual personality and characteristics may influence how we interact and communicate with a parent.

Learning Culture

Our family and our life experiences shape who we are and how we think. Every culture has their stories, and sayings that are used to guide behavior and to teach their ways of understanding the world.

Mamma used to say……

Parenting and Culture

Lack of information on the impact of ethnicity on parenting practices.

Confounding of race, poverty and culture.

Parenting and Culture

Difficult to discern parenting behaviors that are present due to culture vs. poverty and associated circumstances. Research that sets out to identify the roots of culture in child development or child rearing most often compare middle income white parents to low income parents.

Parenting and Culture

Parenting practices exert a fundamental influence on identity development, cognitive strengths and belief systems.

How we want children to grow up is defined by cultural values.

Child rearing and parenting practices and the beliefs, goals and values behind them are deeply tied to culture.

Co-sleeping, swaddling, feeding, holding, discipline

Parenting Practices and Culture

Three critical responsibilities that all parents have are to

1) form healthy emotional and social attachments with their child,

2) create safe and nurturing environments, and

3) establish strong positive parent-child relationships and link to family support systems and resources to empower the family.

Parenting Practices and Culture

Among many other things, parenting generally involves teaching their child how to take care of their basic needs, self-control, acceptable social skills, and language.

What are parent responsibilities?

What does it take to be a parent?

Parenting Practices and Culture

-Parenting practices that are rooted in culture

-Cultural values that influence parenting practices

Independence vs. interdependence, reciprocity/sharing, respect for elders

-Cultural beliefs and/or practices that influence parenting practices

obedient vs. submissive, extended family, spoiling a baby, physical discipline of children, communication between adult and child

Parenting Practices and Culture

Some parenting practices may have origins in culture or family values and beliefs, but may not be healthy or best practices for children.

We have to consider several factors in how and why parents parent as they do.

Family practice, historical, environmental…..

Trauma

A traumatic experience usually includes the following components:

• An overwhelming experience

• A threat to our physical and/or mental well-being

• A sense of vulnerability or a loss of control

• A feeling of helplessness and/or fearfulness

• Impact on relationships and belief systems

Trauma

Traumatic stress impacts every aspect of a person’s life, including their responses to danger, ability to form and sustain relationships, self-concept, decision-making, physical and mental health, and ability to maintain housing and employment.

Trauma

Human Reaction to Stress

• Witnessing a fight

• Collapsing bridge

• Hurricane

• Tornado

• Car accident

Trauma

Trauma creates distance, distrust, and disconnection with people.

It can create a sense of a shortened future. An inability to move forward in life.

This can result in children who are receiving compromised parenting. Both parents and children need to create a new normal.

A healthier, more productive normal!

Trauma * Children

Trauma deeply affects children and their development. Toxic stress in early childhood is associated with persistent effects on the nervous system and stress hormone systems that can damage developing brain architecture and lead to lifelong problems in learning, behavior, and both physical and mental health. The essential feature of toxic stress is the absence of consistent, supportive relationships to help the child cope…and teach them their culture.

Trauma * What happens in early childhood can matter for a lifetime

Early experiences influences the developing brain.

Chronic stress can be toxic to developing brains.

Significant early adversity can lead to lifelong problems.

Early intervention can prevent the consequences of early adversity.

Stable, caring relationships are essential for healthy development.

Research tells us…

Early prenatal or postnatal experiences and exposures influence long-term outcomes by chemically altering the structure of the genes.

The brain is particularly responsive to experiences and environments during early development, which influences how well or poorly its architecture matures and function.

Early Experiences Can Alter Gene Expression and Affect Long-Term Development: Working Paper 10, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University

Children need for their parents to be a source of strength, calm, to teach them their culture and the lessons learned.

Children need and deserve a stable, responsive, nurturing, safe environment to be the best that they can be. We need children to be the best that they can be!

It is difficult for parents experiencing traumatic stressful life experiences to provide children the attention they need (and deserve) to thrive.

Parenting, Culture and Trauma

Parenting

Expectations

Racism

Biology

Relationships

Parenting, Culture and Trauma

What might be behaviors or adaptive responses for a family with 3 children, 3 months to 6 years doubling up, at day shelter and church basement or living in shelter?

What are adaptive responses you see in parents in your program?

What are cultural practices you see in the parents you serve?

Parenting, Culture and Trauma

Parenting practices may come out of (generational) trauma

How can generational trauma affect parenting practices?

• Harsh/anger driven and inconsistent discipline, ….

• Non-responsive care

• Unrealistic child expectations

• Compromised parent efficacy or confidence

• What else?

Parenting, Culture and Trauma

Parents’ experience and history strongly influences their understanding of their roles in caring for and raising their children.

“The trauma of homelessness can dramatically affect the capacity of a parent to maintain close, nurturing, and stable relationships with his or her very young children.”

Neurons to Neighborhoods; National Research Council Institute of Medicine

Parenting, Culture and Trauma

“How does a mother know how to parent a child if she has not been parented herself?”

Parent efficacy or confidence

“Lower levels of parenting efficacy have been associated with negative psychological and social problems among children, such as anxiety.”

Relationships between Parenting Environment and Children’s Mental Health among African American and European American Mothers and Children. NCFR

Culture and Trauma

Trauma can distort parenting practices, values and traditions rooted in culture.

Cultural awareness, family traditions and beliefs can be lost as a result of generational trauma.

“Traumatic stress” refers to a level of stress that is so intense that it can be overwhelming for our bodies to manage.

Other factors that influence parenting practices

• Racism

• Poverty

• Language

• Socioeconomic status

• Parent’s education

• Parent’s age

• Teen parents may not have appropriate parenting skills.

• Mental health or depression

• Drug or alcohol addictions

• Lack of financial resources

Summary

• Keep in mind culture is a source of strength so if you “correct” or suggest why action is wrong you have further disempowered the parent.

• Distinguish between parenting practices that are rooted in culture vs. come out of trauma.

• Help parent recognize parenting practices that will not lead to the outcome of healthy child development.

• Tap into your cultural awareness to acknowledge a moment of bias.

For More Information

Sharon Henry-Blythe

Director, Visible Child Initiative 612-375-9644 x19 Sharon@fhfund.org www.visiblechild.org

Nedra Robinson M.A.Ed

nedrarobinson@gmail.com

Resources

The Science of Early Childhood Development: Closing the Gap Between What We Know and What We Do, National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University.