[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-167221-en":3,"doc-seo-167221-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},167221,962075006959,"Anda","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/e0002397efbe92a78e?_k=1776741047341049297",8,"Research & Report","Some culture is hiding in plain sight in research on child development","Child development is cultural in nature, yet a divide persists between a (cross-)cultural developmental science niche and an apparently a-cultural mainstream. Research often relies on convenience sampling in Western, post-industrial WEIRD societies, which limits cultural and contextual inquiry and encourages overgeneralization and false assumptions about what is typical. The article pursues two aims: mapping the cultural composition of commonly overrepresented communities and showing how this cultural makeup shapes the methods, findings, and theories of developmental science.","Received: 9 April 2025 | Accepted: 9 May 2026  \nDOI: 10.1111/bjdp.70053  \nA RT IC L E  \nSome culture is hiding in plain sight in research on child development  \nRoman Stengelin1,2   \n1Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany 2Department of Psychology and Social Work, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia  \nCorrespondence  \nRoman Stengelin, Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.  \nEmail: [roman_stengelin@eva.mpg.de](roman_stengelin@eva.mpg.de)  \nFunding information  \nMax-Planck-Gesellschaft; Jacobs CIFAR Research Fellowship (Cohort 2025–2027)  \nAbstract  \nChild development is cultural in nature, yet a divide persists between a (cross-)cultural developmental science niche alongside a seemingly a-cultural mainstream. In particular, childhood research relying on convenience sampling in often Western, post-industrial (i.e., WEIRD) societies rarely ventures into issues of culture and context, promoting excessive overgeneralization and false assumptions of what is considered ‘typical’ in child development. This article has two aims: First, it illustrates the cultural make-up of the communities traditionally overrepresented yet often unmarked in developmental science, while highlighting important variations within this cluster. Second, it demonstrates how this cultural make-up, in turn, is key to the methods employed, the findings produced and the theories postulated in developmental science. Regardless of where it is conducted, developmental science is a cultural endeavour and thus needs to grapple with its cultural foundations.  \nK E Y WO R D S  \ncontextualization, cross-cultural psychology, generalizability, global north, minority world, WEIRD  \nFish are born expecting water, and humans are born expecting culture.  \n–Mike Tomasello  \nThere are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says ‘Morning, boys. How's the water?’And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over atthe other and goes ‘What the hell is water?’  \n–David Foster Wallace, This is Water.  \nThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.  \n© 2026 The Author(s). British Journal of Developmental Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.  \n2  \n|  \nSTENGELIN  \nStatement of Contribution  \nWhat is already known on this subject?  \n• Research and theory in human development remain overly focused on children from urban, post-industrial communities in North America and Western Europe.  \n• Research in these communities rarely contextualizes its participants, instead engaging in broad generalization while neglecting its cultural foundations.  \nWhat does this article add?  \n• This article illustrates the common cultural make-up of societies traditionally overrepresented in developmental research, while highlighting diversity within them.  \n• This cultural make-up typically goes unnoticed in the communication and interpretation of child development research, yet it is foundational to the questions asked and findings obtained.  \nChildhood is key for the construction of the human mind. It is cultural in nature, shaped by and enabling the breadth of human behaviours and experiences found worldwide (Bjorklund, 2018; Rogoff, 2003). Foundational theories of human development have long acknowledged the fundamental importance of culture on developmental processes and outcomes (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Vygotsky, 1978).  \nDespite this, empirical data and theory in developmental science exhibit a significant bias towards particular childhoods, often exclusively relying on convenience sampling in Western, E","cbCaitY6AQmStcJ0","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitY6AQmStcJ0","pdf",1546800,1,18,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n## Statement of Contribution\n### What is already known on this subject?\n### What does this article add?\n## Childhood is key for the construction of the human mind\n## CHILD DEVELOPMENT IS NEVER FREE OF CULTURE","[{\"question\":\"Why does the article argue that child development research often misses cultural influences?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that many studies use convenience sampling in Western, post-industrial WEIRD societies and treat participants as a culture-free default, leaving culture unmarked and insufficiently contextualized.\"},{\"question\":\"What are the two aims of the article?\",\"answer\":\"First, to illustrate the cultural composition of communities traditionally overrepresented in developmental science and highlight variation within them. Second, to show how this cultural composition is key to the methods used, findings produced, and theories proposed.\"},{\"question\":\"How does sampling skew affect generalizability in developmental science?\",\"answer\":\"Because most publications originate from North America, Europe, Australia, or Aotearoa New Zealand, research may assume its conclusions generalize broadly, even though culturally informed studies often localize findings to the specific communities studied.\"}]","Some culture is hiding in plain sight in research on child development | PDF",1788210351,45,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":28},"some-culture-is-hiding-in-plain-sight-in-research-on-child-development","",{"@graph":36,"@context":86},[37,54,69],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/some-culture-is-hiding-in-plain-sight-in-research-on-child-development/167221/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-01","2026-08-31",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"Why does the article argue that child development research often misses cultural influences?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"It argues that many studies use convenience sampling in Western, post-industrial WEIRD societies and treat participants as a culture-free default, leaving culture unmarked and insufficiently contextualized.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"What are the two aims of the article?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"First, to illustrate the cultural composition of communities traditionally overrepresented in developmental science and highlight variation within them. Second, to show how this cultural composition is key to the methods used, findings produced, and theories proposed.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"How does sampling skew affect generalizability in developmental science?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"Because most publications originate from North America, Europe, Australia, or Aotearoa New Zealand, research may assume its conclusions generalize broadly, even though culturally informed studies often localize findings to the specific communities studied.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,98,102,106,111,116,121,124,129,132,136],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":113,"show_sort_weight":114,"slug":115},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":118,"show_sort_weight":119,"slug":120},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":133,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":133,"slug":135},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":139},19,"General","general"]