Mothers watching mothers: A video‑elicited comparison of ethnotheories on children's helping at home among Kichwa Indigenous mothers (Ecuador) and mothers in Münster (Germany)

Abstract

While young children globally are eager to help adults, older children display significant cross‑cultural differences: Western children often become reluctant to do chores, whereas Indigenous children in many Latin American communities maintain strong motivation. To elucidate the origins of these divergent trajectories, this study compares maternal ethnotheories, socialization goals, and practices concerning children's involvement in household chores among Münster middle‑class (MMC) mothers (Germany) and Kichwa Indigenous (KI) mothers (Ecuador). Mothers observed pre‑recorded videos of mother–child interactions during mealtime preparation from both cultural contexts and evaluated the observed practices while reflecting on their own socialization aims. Results revealed not only different views on socialization goals and practices but also striking differences in how housework is emotionally and relationally framed. MMC mothers emphasized children's freedom of choice, the provision of choices, and hands‑on task engagement, and described weekday routines as time‑pressured. KI mothers valued children's learning through observation, self‑sufficiency, and alignment with family responsibilities, viewing housework as a context for bonding. Interestingly, both groups characterized the interactional atmosphere in KI families as more harmonious than in MMC families. These findings suggest that cross‑cultural differences in children's prosocial motivation are rooted in divergent socialization goals, practices, as well as in the broader relational‑affective organization of everyday work.