Research on cultural differences in visual attention has shown a striking East vs. West phenomenon, in which individuals from Eastern countries (e.g., China and Japan) adopt more holistic visual attention styles while individuals from Western countries (e.g., USA, and Canada) adopt more analytic styles. However, the underlying mechanism contributing to the development of these culturally unique visual attention styles remains largely unresolved. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized evidence from 15 studies on children’s visual attention styles on the picture description task to determine what factors influence the development of children’s visual attention styles and which explanation may best account for their development. Our meta-analysis, which included results from 7 studies (N = 1,377), found a weak but significant overall effect of culture on visual attention. Interestingly,  a moderate effect was found for urban vs. rural communities' influence on visual attention, suggesting a more nuanced picture of the effect of culture on visual attention than originally thought. Finally, significant age and parental interaction effects on visual attention were found. Based on the results of our meta-analysis, we propose that it is the early socialization practices children experience through their parents that most strongly influence the development of cross-cultural visual attention styles.