Cultural Variations in attachment (6)

Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research  (1988) (1)

Procedure

 

They conducted a study to look at the proportions of secure, insecure- avoidant, insecure -resistant attachments across a range of countries to access cultural variations.

 

They also looked at the differences within the same country to get an idea of variations within a culture.

 

They found 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation had been used, these studies where conducted in 8 countries, 15 in the US, overall the study consisted of 1990 children and the data was meta-analysed.

Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research  (1988) (2)

Findings

 

• In all countries the most common classification was secure attachment.

• However the proportion varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China.

 

In individualistic cultures (Britain and Germany) the rates of insecure resistant attachments were similar to Ainsworth original sample (all under 14%)

Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research  (1988) (3)

Findings

But this was not true for the collectivist samples from Japan and Israel, where rates were above 25% (rates of insecure avoidant attachment were reduced in Japan and Israel.

 

This suggests that there were cultural differences in the distribution of insecure attachment.

 

Variations between results of studies within the same country were actually 150% greater than those between countries

 

In the US one study found 46% securely attached compared to one sample as high as 80%

Simmonelli (2014) Italian study (1)

Procedure

 

Conducted a study in Italy to see wether the proportions of babies of different attachment types matched those found in older studies.

 

Simmonelli assessed 76 mothers and their babies aged 12 months in Italy using the strange situation to see wether the proportion of attatchment types matched older studies.

Simmonelli (2014) Italian study (2)

Findings

 

Simmonelli found that 50% were secure, with 36% insecure - avoidant.

 

This lower rate of secure attachment may be because increasingly mothers work long hours and use more childcare

 

These findings suggest that cultural changes can effect patterns of attachment, patterns of attachment are not static but vary in line with cultural change. 

Jin (2012) - a Korean study (1)

Procedure

 

Used the strange situation to compare the attachment types of 87 Korean mothers and babies to proportions in other studies

Jin (2012) - a Korean study (2)

Findings

 

They found that the majority of babies were securely attached similar to other studies

 

However within insecure categories there were differences - only one baby was avoidant.

 

This pattern is similar to Japan and may be because both countries have similar child - rearing practices.

Conclusions

Secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporting Bowlby’s idea that attachment is innate and universal and this type is the universal norm.

However the research also clearly shows that cultural practices have an influence on attachment type

A03 - use of local researchers

Most of the studies were conducted by local researchers, local researchers are those from the same cultural background as the participants

 

Local researchers are those from the same cultural background as the participants (Grossmann et al 1981, a German team working with German participants)

 

Using local researchers aids communication between researchers and participants and helps prevent misunderstandings of instructions (for example)

 

This means that there is an excellent chance that researchers and participants communicated successfully, increasing the validity of the study

A03 - the impact of extraneous variables

Studies conducted in different countries are not usually matched for methodology when they are compared in reviews of meta analyses, they may not be matched for simple characteristics, they may use children of different ages and social classes.

 

Environmental variables may also differ (using smaller rooms for the strange situation procedure which might encourage babies to explore more)

This means that studies assessing attachment types carried our in different countries may tell us little about cultural differences in attachment.

A03 - the value of Emic research

Strength of cross-cultural research is that It enhanced our understanding of attachment behaviour.

 

Thompson (2021) suggests that emic research is a useful addition to the more usual etic approach (looking for universal behaviours)

 

Bowlby and Ainsworth emphasised universals in attachment behaviour (an etic approach). Cross cultural research using an emic approach has found differences in attachment behaviour.

 

This means that the cross cultural research enriches our understanding pf attachment by providing alternative interpretations of a baby’s behaviour