Childrearing Practices in Latin America: Summary of the Workshop Results

In 1991 the Latin American Council of Bishops (CELAM), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development began a collaboration on a project whose overarching purpose was to improve programs of attention to young children living in conditions that put them at risk of delayed or debilitated physical, mental, social and/or emotional development. The specific approach taken in the project began with the study of childrearing practices and patterns, from conception to about the time children were ready to enter primary school. Knowledge about childrearing was not sought for its own sake but was, rather, to be translated into action. Accordingly, the explicit purposes of the project were: