Separation

What is separation and what can it lead to?

• Separation is when a child is apart from their main caregiver for a short period of time.

• Separation can lead to separation anxiety, where the child shows a strong desire to be near the caregiver and distress when they are apart.

How is separation anxiety shown?

This distress is shown through proximity-maintaining behaviours, such as crying, clinging, and moving towards the caregiver

What did Bowlby and Robertson suggest happens during short-term disruption to attachment?

Bowlby and Robertson suggested that when children experience short-term disruption to attachment, they go through the PDD model: protest, despair and detachment.

What happens in the protest stage?

• In the protest stage, the child shows immediate distress and anxiety, cries for the caregiver, and tries to cling to them. This can last from several hours to days.

What happens in the despair stage?

• In the despair stage, the child’s active protest reduces, but they remain upset, withdrawn and hopeless, often refusing comfort from others.

What happens in the detachment stage?

• In the detachment stage, if separation continues, the child may begin to engage with others again, but they suppress their feelings for the caregiver and may ignore them when they return.

What did Bowlby and Robertson argue about prolonged detachment?

• Bowlby and Robertson argued that prolonged detachment may lead to major psychological trauma, as the child becomes emotionally withdrawn and no longer seeks mothering.

Supporting evidence

• John’s case supports the PDD model, because he showed all three stages of separation distress: he sobbed and resisted comfort (protest), later became quieter and clung to a teddy bear (despair), and then would not look at his mother when she returned (detachment).

• This supports Bowlby and Robertson’s explanation because it shows that children may move through a predictable sequence of emotional responses when separated from their caregiver.

Critique of evidence

• Some psychologists argue that it is not separation itself that causes distress, but associated factors such as the unfamiliar environment, the length and nature of the separation, or the child’s resilience and temperament.

• This criticises the PDD model because it suggests Bowlby and Robertson may have oversimplified the cause of the child’s distress by focusing too much on the absence of the caregiver alone.

Other explanation / evidence against the critique

• However, Spiro (1958) reported the case of a boy in an Israeli Kibbutz who was left for several weeks in a familiar environment with familiar people, yet still showed the same distress as John.

• This suggests that unfamiliarity of the environment alone cannot explain the distress, because the child was still upset despite remaining in familiar surroundings.

• Fagin (1966) also found that only children left in hospital without their mother showed distress, whereas matched children accompanied by their mother did not.

• This suggests it is the absence of the mother figure that is most important in causing separation distress, rather than just unfamiliar surroundings.

Application

• Research by the Robertsons (1971) showed that the negative effects of separation can be reduced when children are provided with good-quality substitute care.

• James and Joyce Robertson became temporary foster carers for four children whose mothers were going into hospital, and they got to know the child’s habits and developmental stage beforehand.

• They found that distress was reduced when children had a substitute caregiver, regular contact with the parent, photographs or reminders of home, and were allowed to keep familiar toys and routines.

• These findings have practical applications in day care centres, nurseries and hospital care, and have influenced childcare policies such as staff-to-child ratios to ensure children receive enough attention and stimulation.

Reductionism

• The PDD model can be seen as reductionist, because it assumes children pass through the same fixed three stages of response to separation.

• In reality, the effects of separation are influenced by individual differences, such as the age of the child, whether they have siblings, their temperament, and whether there is a replacement caregiver available.

• For example, an older child may cope better because they have already formed a secure attachment, a child with siblings may receive emotional support, and a familiar substitute caregiver may provide a similar emotional safety net.

• This means Bowlby and Robertson’s model may be too simple to explain every child’s experience of separation.