Edited by: Stephanie A. Shields, Pennsylvania State University (PSU), United States
Reviewed by: Rodolfo Bachler, Major University, Chile; Vivian Afi Abui Dzokoto, Virginia Commonwealth University, United States
This article was submitted to Emotion Science, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
To learn more about Chilean emotional beliefs related to emotion development, 271 Mapuche and non-Mapuche parents and teachers in urban and rural settings reported their emotion beliefs using a questionnaire invariant in the Chilean context (
Beliefs about emotions are thought to be important in influencing individuals’ own behaviors and how they respond to others (
The origin of emotion beliefs is most likely situated in the cultural context (
Differences can also occur for cultures co-existing within a region. For example, in Nepal, the Tamang participate in Tibetan Buddhism, with its relatively egalitarian orientation, emphasis on compassion, and willingness to share with others. When socializing children, they tend to ignore/minimize reasons for anger, and instead discuss and nurture children’s experiences of shame. In this way, they promote their ideal of socially graceful, non-angry children. In contrast, the Brahman, with their hierarchically privileged position in the Hindu caste system, tend to nurture anger while ignoring shame in their socialization practices (
Studying emotion beliefs across cultures not only informs us about other cultures but also gives us insight into our own cultural beliefs and values, as well as the opportunity to reflect on or change the beliefs and values we want to inculcate in our young. Recognizing the connections from particular beliefs to behavior, and then to outcome, allows adults to better consider how to socialize toward compassion or power in the young of their own cultures (
Although emotion-related beliefs have been investigated in the United States, Europe, and Asia, the study of culture and emotion is still incipient in South America with its heterogenous cultures, and the meeting of various original and dominant occidental cultures. Our work answers the call to investigate more of the cultural possibilities in emotion-related values and experiences across the world (
The Mapuche are the original people living in Southern Chile and Argentina (Mapuche means “people of the land”). They have managed to live continuously in their region, having withstood attempted invasions by the Incas and holding off Spanish invaders for over 300 years. When the newly formed countries of Chile and Argentina joined forces, they were able to finally subdue the Mapuche. Relations between the Mapuche and the Chilean state since then have been characterized by a latent conflict marked by the struggle for recovery and protection of the territories known to the Mapuche as well as recognition in social and educational domains. Despite or perhaps because of these tensions, the Mapuche have been able to maintain a good portion of their customs and cultural beliefs, particularly in the rural areas, without becoming fully assimilated into mainstream Chilean society.
A deep respect for the environment as the good way to live (“
The current emotion-related beliefs of the Mapuche likely emerge from their ancestral knowledge, culture, and history. In addition to the centrality of nature and its protection, or perhaps because of it, Mapuche history has been intricately intertwined with war for many centuries now. The feature of fearlessness may have enabled the Mapuche to withstand both Inca and Spanish encroachment over the centuries, or may have resulted from the absolute need to protect and defend the land (
However, some Mapuche have succumbed to the devaluation and discrimination imposed by Chilean dominant culture (largely Spanish and German origin in this region) and the adoption of North American economic principles, and have chosen to assimilate into the wider culture. Inevitably, as the cultures have lived in some proximity over the centuries, beliefs have been shared and have intermingled. Thus, although we focus on differentiating Mapuche beliefs and non-Mapuche beliefs, partly in order to highlight the value of these oppressed people’s beliefs, it is important to note that the two cultures may have moved toward each other in various beliefs over time.
Parents are important in guiding emotion-related values and beliefs in many cultures, and do so via multiple behavioral pathways (
Teachers are also powerful socializers and important to children who spend over 1000 h per year in school. The student-teacher relationship greatly impacts a student’s school experience (
A lack of congruence between Mapuche parent and non-Mapuche teacher beliefs has also been thought to be responsible for some of the problematic outcomes for Mapuche children in school (
Geographic location affects how people relate to their environment, and indeed, influences their communities, cultures, and economies, as well as interpersonal relations with and across space and place (
Although the effects of geography on emotion-related beliefs have not been well-explored, it is easy to imagine that a rural, agrarian lifestyle with small homes, well-spaced so as to support cultivating animals and crops, might be emotionally different than city life, with apartments close together, children having less independence or responsibility outside their homes, and more asphalt, cars, people, and traffic. We thought that rural Mapuche living in traditional, agrarian communities might have more connection to the land and their source of spirituality and wholeness, particularly for beliefs embedded in the particularities of a geographical location. In contrast, we thought that urban Mapuche living in cities, with exposure to the diverse beliefs of others, might have difficulty holding onto ancestral cultural beliefs as well as their connection to the land.
Our goals were to explore the similarities and distinctiveness in socialization beliefs about emotion. We had three aims. First, we wanted to learn whether beliefs identified in three cultures within the United States would be relevant in another county and in a culture distinctive from the cultures in which the scales originated. Although (or because) there are many countries, geographically separating the United States and Chile, which were created with different European influences, similarities would help inform us regarding the widespread relevance of these beliefs across the Americas. Second, we wanted to learn more about the emotion-related beliefs in the distinctive culture of the Mapuche, and to introduce Mapuche beliefs to other cultures, because these beliefs, once articulated, could be meaningful for other South or North American cultures and, indeed, worldwide. Third, because “culture” involves many components, we wanted to explore culture as (a) the different groups of a region, focusing on Mapuche versus non-Mapuche as one distinction that the people in Chile find meaningful, (b) the defining roles of the participants, focusing on whether participants are parents or teachers, which implies different responsibilities with children and engagement with the dominant ideology regarding educating children, and (c) geography, focusing on the rural versus urban location of the participants, which reflects a host of physical and community influences.
To examine Chilean emotional beliefs about children, 271 Mapuche and non-Mapuche parents and teachers completed a questionnaire (
Although cross-cultural work often focuses on finding differences, we felt it would be presumptuous to assume differences in the six subscales from the United States, as any hypotheses would not be theoretically derived. We did, however, hypothesize significant cultural differences between the Mapuche and non-Mapuche Chileans for the Mapuche-derived beliefs. We thought that parents’ beliefs would be more differentiated across cultures than teachers, because the dominant educational ideology might have influenced teachers’ beliefs to be more similar across cultures. We also thought that rural participants might be more differentiated than city participants for two reasons. In the city, the constant engagement with heterogeneity of beliefs might ultimately lead to greater homogeneity in mean scores across the cultures, as the populations assimilate toward each other. Additionally, rural participants might more successfully retain the beliefs of their heritage, particularly the beliefs that are embedded in interconnections to nature and place, which are more present in rural life. To assess these general research questions and hypotheses, we analyzed beliefs using MANOVAs that included culture (Mapuche, non-Mapuche), role (parent, teacher), and geography (urban, rural).
The 271 participants included 106 Mapuche adults (77 parents and 29 teachers [82.1% female;
As the largest of the original populations of Chile, the Mapuche comprise almost 13% of Chileans, but 34.3% of the people living in the Araucania region (
This study was carried out in accordance with APA recommendations of standards for research and was approved by the research ethics committee of Universidad Católica de Temuco. All participants gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. A team of prospective and current teachers, including many who were first generation in college, recruited teachers from the schools where they had taught or with whom they had contacts, and also parents via the same type of snowball sampling. Because few Mapuche speak Mapuzungun in daily life (e.g.,
This questionnaire includes 11 scales assessing emotion-related beliefs. All scales demonstrate configural, metric, and at least partial scalar invariance with Mapuche and non-Mapuche Chilean participants.
Descriptions of the emotion-related beliefs.
Value of anger | 3 | Es útil para los niños sentir enojo a veces | It is useful for children to feel angry sometimes | 0.50 |
Positivity is costly | 4 | Cuando los niños están muy felices, pueden salirse de control | When children are too happy, they can get out of control | 0.65 |
Children can control | 5 | Los niños pueden controlar lo que muestran en sus rostros | Children can control what they show on their faces | 0.70 |
Emotions are manipulative | 4 | Los niños a veces actúan tristes solo para obtener atención | Children often cry just to get attention | 0.74 |
Know children’s feelings | 3 | Los padres deberían alentar a sus niños a decirles todo lo que están sintiendo | Parents (teachers) should encourage their children to tell them everything they are feeling | 0.71 |
Autonomy | 3 | Usualmente es mejor dejar al niño que maneje sus sentimientos negativos por sí solo | It’s usually best to let a child work through their negative feelings on their own | 0.56 |
Control of fear | 6 | Parte del crecimiento es aprender a no sentir miedo | Part of growing up is learning not to be afraid | 0.76 |
Calm child | 7 | Estar tranquilo es clave para el control de las emociones. | Being calm is key to the control of emotions | 0.79 |
Kumeche | 4 | Los niños deben estar atento a las necesidades de los otros | Children must be attentive to the needs of others | 0.68 |
Emotion through observation | 4 | Los niños aprenden a regularse emocionalmente escuchando a los adultos | Children learn to regulate their emotions by listening to adults | 0.71 |
Regulation through nature | 8 | La naturaleza puede ayudar a los niños regular sus expresiones emocionales | Nature can help children to regulate their emotional expressions | 0.87 |
In this questionnaire, items representing six beliefs from the Parents’ Beliefs about Children’s Emotions (PBACE,
Five beliefs identified within the Mapuche Chilean context had also been identified from semi-structured interviews with Mapuche mothers and elders about their emotion-related values and experiences of children in schools as well as general cultural knowledge (
For all items, participants were asked to choose the item that best fit what they thought, using a scale from one (completely disagree) to six (completely agree).
A three-way MANOVA was run with three independent variables – culture, role, and geography- and six dependent variables (i.e., beliefs). There were no significant main effects on the combined dependent variables (
Univariate comparisons for the United States-generated beliefs.
Value of anger | 4.13 (1.14) | 3.79 (1.13) |
Positivity costly | 3.51 (1.30) | 3.26 (1.12) |
Children can control | 3.22 (1.24) | 3.00 (1.04) |
Emotions are Manipulative | 3.46 (1.30) | 3.25 (1.30) |
Know children’s feelings | 5.09 (1.18) | 5.19 (1.11) |
Autonomy | 2.93 (1.16) | 2.66 (1.12) |
Culture, role, and belief about whether children can control their emotions.
There was also a significant interaction between culture and location (
Culture, locale, and the belief about the importance of knowing children’s feelings.
A three-way MANOVA was run with three independent variables – culture, role, and geography – and five dependent variables (i.e., beliefs). The main effects on the combined dependent variables for culture, role, and geography were all significant; these were not qualified by 2- or 3-way interactions (
Univariate comparisons, significant effects, and combined effects for the Mapuche-generated scales.
Control of fear | 4.13 (1.14) | 3.79 (1.13) | 1, 270 | 7.08** | 0.027 |
Being a calm child | 4.07 (1.17) | 3.82 (0.98) | 1, 270 | 7.47** | 0.029 |
Kumeche | 4.22 (1.30) | 4.18 (1.01) | 1, 270 | 6.60* | 0.025 |
Learning through observation | 4.57 (1.24) | 4.33 (0.95) | 1, 270 | 7.89** | 0.030 |
Regulation through nature | 4.57 (1.30) | 4.31 (1.12) | 1, 270 | 9.40** | 0.036 |
Being a calm child | 4.03 (1.09) | 3.72 (0.98) | 1, 270 | 5.73** | 0.022 |
Kumeche | 4.32 (1.01) | 3.97 (1.35) | 1, 270 | 7.57** | 0.026 |
Regulation through nature | 4.47 (1.10) | 4.29 (1.44) | 1, 270 | 5.00* | 0.019 |
Overall, we found similarities across cultures as well as differences in emotional beliefs about children embedded within cultural norms and values. Similarities across Mapuche and non-Mapuche parents and teachers were found for beliefs about children’s emotional autonomy and efficacy in controlling and regulating emotion, and the belief that when emotions are not in check, even positive emotions can have costly consequences.
Differences in emotion beliefs were shown by the stronger belief of the Mapuche compared to non-Mapuche that children can and should outgrow feeling fear and should also be calm, quiet children, themes which are consistent with previous findings using very different methodologies (
With regard to the emotion socialization pathways supported by these beliefs, two findings can be highlighted: Mapuche traditions of listening to elders’ storytelling and watching elders may be important to distinguish from the greater emphasis on verbal discussion that seems to characterize United States cultural contexts or by “observing and pitching in” in Central American cultural contexts (
Parental and teacher beliefs were very similar, showing only two differences: Mapuche parents reported believing that children can control emotions more than Mapuche teachers, and parents in general more strongly valued a calm child compared to teachers. These findings do support the notion that Mapuche teachers have more of an occidental, Eurocentric perspective similar to non-Mapuche teachers and compared to Mapuche parents. They also will have had greater familiarity with non-Mapuche children who are not socialized with the same values for being calm (as shown in our data), and are also in classrooms with many children who thus have increased opportunities for emotional contagion.
Geographical location appeared important in three ways. The interaction with culture and location suggested that the Mapuche, whether rural or urban, do value knowing what their children are feeling, but rural non-Mapuche had less belief that it was important to know children’s feelings. Perhaps the dangers associated with living in a city may lead urban participants to feel the need to know more about children’s lives, regardless of their cultural background. Additionally, those in urban settings believed in the importance of Kumeche (attentiveness, compassion, kindness) and nature as a regulator significantly more than those in rural areas. These main effects were surprising to us. It may be that life without much support for solidarity and community structure and lack of nature constantly surrounding the family may be missed by urban families. At the same time, rural families may not hold such strong beliefs for what is present in their lives and may take for granted the importance of nature as an emotion regulator.
We also found that the differences between the Mapuche and non-Mapuche for emotion beliefs generated by the Mapuche, although significant, were not as great as we expected. We note the challenge of questionnaire research in populations which are not that familiar with questionnaire assessment and who come from more of a conversational, story-telling tradition. In this way, our results may be more conservative than true to the differences across the cultures. Alternatively, that many Mapuche and non-Mapuche live in the same communities, and have for some time, may suggest cross-fertilization of thinking as well as continued variation in the depth of acceptance of these beliefs.
Because most children in Chile are taught by non-Mapuche teachers, results highlight some of the challenges facing children being taught by non-culturally connected teachers. For example, non-Mapuche teachers might think that quiet, calm children are not showing sufficient enthusiasm or are not paying attention to lessons. Further, when Mapuche children need to calm themselves, their teachers may not perceive the importance of letting children spend time outside in nature. These results also suggest new, distinctive beliefs about emotion, which, now that they have been identified, can be assessed in other countries as well. This is important in that ideas about emotion “residue” found in Indian culture were also surprisingly prevalent in the United States once researchers thought to study them in the United States (
Finally, we note some of the limitations of the study. First, the Mapuche and non-Mapuche participants were recruited via a snowball method, and so may be more highly educated and/or economically privileged than their counterparts who did not have a college student in their friendship or family networks. We do not know if this would increase or decrease the strength of our findings, but we do note the problem. We also measured beliefs via questionnaires, which is one of many methods, and requires participants to fit their beliefs into explicitly stated questions which might not have sufficient precision to their own unique beliefs, or might make them wonder what the “right” answer might be. However, a strength of the study is that the beliefs we asked were initially generated from long conversations in which implicit as well as explicit beliefs could be revealed, and these were utilized in questionnaire construction. Further, we note that for both the United States- and the Mapuche-generated beliefs, the mean scores hover slightly above the middle for most scales, indicating mild agreement with the beliefs. Exceptions were the relatively high agreement with the importance of knowing what children are feeling (except for rural, non-Mapuche), and the relatively low agreement regarding children being autonomous. There was also good variability for all beliefs. These results, along with the internal reliability indices, suggest that the beliefs we included are recognized and have meaning for the people responding to them. We also do not know the degree to which participants resonated with these beliefs in principle, but not in actuality. That is, there is a potentially large difference between what people say they believe and then demonstrate in their actions.
Of course, there are many emotion-related beliefs, and this set of 11 beliefs is just a subset of what is possible to explore. Nevertheless, we hope that by identifying both similarities and differences between the cultures, we have highlighted particular beliefs worth exploring in these cultural contexts as well as others.
The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.
The study was reviewed and approved by the Comité de Ética de la Investigación de la, Universidad Católica de Temuco. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.
Based on qualitative interviews: AH and ER wrote items for the Mapuche-generated scales. AH advised ER re: PBACE scales and items, supervised the analyses, and wrote and edited much of the manuscript. DO analyzed the data, wrote the “Results” section, created the tables, and contributed to the “Introduction,” “Materials and Methods,” and “Discussion.” ER developed the relationships with Mapuche that enabled us to collect the data, conceptualized the study, wrote items for the Mapuche-generated scales (with AH), supervised the translation process (both within Spanish and across to English), supervised the data collection, wrote the portions of the “Materials and Methods” and “Introduction’ sections, and helped to revise the “Discussion” section.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: