Imbalances in the knowledge about infancy: the divide between rich and poor countries

Abstract

Over 90% of the world's infants are born in low-income or "developing" countries, and these countries bear a disproportionate burden in terms of health and social problems. In this article we compare the contributions of richer and poorer countries to knowledge about infancy. We surveyed articles on infancy from 12 international journals dealing with psychological aspects of childhood and infancy and found that 94% of articles surveyed were written from Europe or North America. We suggest that the imbalance in knowledge about infancy is serious and that efforts must be made to increase collaborative research between poor and rich countries.