Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development

Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development was the first volume to analyze minority child development by comparing minority children to children in their ancestral countries, rather than to children in the host culture. It was a ground-breaking volume that not only offered an historical reconstruction of the cross-cultural roots of minority child development, but a new cultural-historical approach to developmental psychology as well. It was also one of the best attempts to develop guidelines for building models of development that are multicultural in perspective, thus challenging scholars across the behavioral sciences to give more credence to the impact of culture on development and socialization in their respective fields of work. A true classic, Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development will remain an essential resource for any scholar who is interested in minority child development and engages in cross-cultural research and multidisciplinary methodologies.

Patricia M. Greenfield is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her central theoretical and research interest is in the relationship between culture and human development. In 2010, she received the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society from the American Psychological Association. In 2013, she received the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Cultural and Contextual Factors in Child Development from the Society for Research in Child Development. Rodney R. Cocking was director of the Developmental and Learning Sciences program in the division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, and was one of the founding editors of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. He made significant contributions to the areas of developmental theory; cognitive development; linguistic, cultural, and media influences on development; and environments for learning and education. Tragically murdered in 2002, his death was a great loss to his family, his friends and colleagues, and the field.