Cultural influences on the development of lateral preferences: a comparison between French and Tunisian children

Laterality
Jacqueline Fagard, Riadh Dahmen

Abstract

We compared the development of laterality in two cultures that differ in pressure against left-handedness. Tunisian children, who are discouraged by their parents from using their left hand for all food-related activities, were compared to French children, who are allowed to use either the left or right hand. The subjects were 5, 7, and 9 years of age. To check the development of laterality, we tested hand preference (for writing and for performing 14 other manual activities), right-left performance difference, eye preference, and foot preference. The results showed that the frequency of left-handedness and left-eyedness was lower among Tunisian than among French children; this was particularly clear at age 5. Group difference almost disappeared in primary school children. Footedness did not differ between the two groups. Tunisian right-hand writers, although they probably included some children who might not have been right-handed without the cultural pressure, were not less consistent than French right-hand writers on the 14-item scale; they even showed a greater performance difference in favour of the right hand than the French on the pegboard task. These results may indicate that cultural pressure influences handedness at a...Continue Reading

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