ge of life, relationships involve coregulation, and individuals never graduate to being free of the regulatory requirements of intimate others unless they become social isolates" (p. 1014). The enduring influence of parents varies depending on the culture involved. For instance, among Hindu and certain Middle Eastern families, parents are instrumental in arranging marriages for their adult children. In cultures where extended families are the norm, parents continue to influence their offspring even after they themselves become parents. And in certain Asian cultures, parental influence may continue long after the parents are dead, via ancestor worship. Even in American culture, parental influence is long-lived due to the tendency of children to build new relationships based in part on the quality of previous interaction with parents (Maccoby, 1992, p. 1015).
In many societies, superstitions, myths, and folklore are accepted practices connected with childrearing and child development. For example, in Mayan culture, children are thought to be particularly susceptible to evil spirits that dwell in jungles or inhabit the bodies of demon-possessed individuals. Mayan parents take great care to protect their children from these types of dangers (Gaskins, 1996, p. 349). In modern Japan, the concept of infant spiritual independence still holds, based on the ancient belief that babies are spiritually pure, and superior to adults. Thus most Japanese mothers describe their infants as "good" babies, and pamper them excessively (Shwalb, Shwalb, and Shoji, 1996, p. 170). Children who are raised in environments where adults attribute events or characteristics to supernatural causes or who seek assistance from the supernatural in solving problems, tend to have more faith in such spiritual phenomena than children raised in more temporal environments.
Likewise, parental religious belief exerts an influence on child development, when such ...