Description:

This report looks at the development and socialisation of children under 5 years of age in two Caribbean countries, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica. It involved fieldwork in four very different communities as well as extensive discussion with academics and professionals.

Too little is known about child socialisation in the Caribbean, and it is believed that this research breaks new ground. It shows that although most children are loved and cared for, the lives of many are scarred by poverty. The two countries worked in are by no means the poorest in the developing world. But they both have substantial poor populations.

While both countries have strong school systems, care for younger children is often unavailable or unaffordable. In both countries substantial claims are made on funds available to the state due to persistent economic problems and environmental hazards such as hurricanes.

Child-rearing in the communities studied remains highly traditional. Corporal punishment is common and children are often ignored, shouted at or belittled. Both countries have signed up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and their laws and policies pay attention to it. But the day-to-day lives of children have changed little. This applies particularly to children living in poverty, with a disability or with some other form of disadvantage.