Parental behavior shows systematic urban–rural differences across the globe

Parental socialization is the cradle of cultural learning, preparing young children for their specific lifeworld. Given rapid urbanization and cultural change worldwide, it is crucial to understand whether systematic differences in socialization practices exist. Urban as compared to rural contexts are theorized to differ in caregiving practices, yet systematic assessments across diverse contexts are still lacking. Here, we applied a novel behavioral socialization scale (BESOZ) to assess maternal behavior (N = 214) during interactions with their 3-year-old children across 13 standardized tasks, in three urban (Argentina, Germany, Japan) and three rural (Brazil, Mexico, Uganda) contexts worldwide. Latent profile analysis and machine learning revealed three patterns of maternal behavior and key behaviors that distinguished between contexts. Mothers in urban contexts provided suggestions, explanations, and positive feedback (profile 1), while mothers in rural contexts predominantly used directive prompts, demonstrations, and negative feedback (profile 2), or showed maternal dominance in task completion (profile 3). These findings reveal consistent differences in parental behavior across diverse urban and rural contexts, with urban mothers supporting children’s autonomy and independent thinking, and rural mothers capitalizing on social guidance and obligations. This contributes to a better understanding of early learning environments and a framework for studying parent-child interaction in a rapidly urbanizing world.