Multicultural influences on child-rearing practices: implications for today's pediatric dentist.

A vividly compelling portrait of the oral health status for a growing and diverse population of American children has painted for us by Dr. Casamassimo. Many children in this country of minority and ethnic backgrounds live in environments with which many practitioners have limited experience. Many pediatric dentists have already indicated that they perceive parenting styles to change in their lifetime, and these changes have necessitated changes in behavior management techniques used. If we, as pediatric dentists, are to provide care for the growing population of “minority” children, then we need to develop an appreciation of the diversity of circumstances and difficulties many families live with on a daily basis. I will speak about the diversity of cultural factors that influence child-rearing practices and specifically relate the effects of differing child-rearing practices on dental disease etiology, prevention, and care seeking. The dental disease focus of my presentation will also be early childhood caries, not only because it is the cause of most pain and suffering for children, but also because it is only what pediatric dentists are trained to treat and are capable of managing. Let me preface my remarks by stating that, while parenting practices have, in general, been undergoing changes that likely have affected the way we practice as clinicians, there has been very little published research on child-rearing practices. There has been even less research on the role of cultural influences on child rearing practices. What little has been published will be the subject of my presentation this morning, interspersed with some anecdotal information from the clinical experiences of colleagues and my own experiences.