CULTURE AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN: AN OVERVIEW OF FULANI CHILDREN'S EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE FAR NORTH REGION OF CAMEROON

Abstract

This paper discusses the interplay of culture as an important of factor of emotional development of Fulani children as well as its regulation. Children develop emotionally, express and regulate emotion with cultural contexts. Cultural models of self and other
relations are transmitted through the processes of socialization which in some literature are called parenting beliefs or practices. These beliefs and parenting practices vary across cultures and as such they are likely to affect emotional understanding, expression and regulation in different ways. Within the African context in general and Cameroon in particular, the socialization of children is a collective enterprise and varies across ethnic groups. Cameroon is a multi-ethnic country where almost two hundred and fifty ethnic groups live together. This paper discusses cross-cultural studies on the function of parental support, control, and sensitivity for emotional development and regulation of children in the Far north region of Cameroon. Cultural differences shed light on the importance of taking the cultural context into account when studying emotion in general and specifically its expression and regulation in young children. Cultural views on the developing child and subsequent relations with others are the basis for children's self and emotional development that could either facilitate or hamper emotional expression and regulation which in turn may affect children's socio-emotional adjustment in the respective culture.