Cross Cultural Variation in Attachment
AIMS:
- To investigate the types of attachment across cultures and to see how the three main attachment types applied.
- To investigate if attachment types (secure and insecure) are universal across cultures, or culturally specific.
PROCEDURE:
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) conducted a meta analysis (a statistical summary of data) of 32 studies from eight different countries. All 32 studies used the Strange Situation Classification (Ainsworth and Bell, 1970) to measure to attachment types of infants.
FINDINGS:
The most common attachment type in all 8 countries was a secure attachment. In Western Countries, such as USA and Germany the most common insecure attachment was avoidant. In Eastern Countries, such as Japan and Israel, the most common insecure attachment was resistant.
The only country not to fit this trend was China, which had an equal percentage of avoidant and resistant children.
|
Country |
No. of Studies |
Secure |
Resistant |
Avoidant |
| USA
|
18 | 65%
|
14%
|
21%
|
| West Germany
|
3 | 57%
|
8%
|
35%
|
| Israel
|
2 | 64%
|
29%
|
7%
|
| Japan
|
2 | 68%
|
27%
|
5%
|
| Sweden
|
1
|
74%
|
4%
|
22%
|
| UK
|
1
|
75%
|
3%
|
22%
|
| China
|
1
|
50%
|
25%
|
25%
|
| Netherlands
|
4
|
67%
|
7%
|
26%
|
CONCLUSIONS:
The overall consistency in secure attachment types leads to the conclusion that there may be universal (innate) characteristics that underpin infant and caregiver interactions.
However, the significant variations of insecure attachments demonstrate that universality is limited. Implications include the linking of the variation in attachment to child-rearing practices and environmental factors.
CRITICISMS
The Strange Situation Classification (SSC) was created and tested in the USA, which means that it may be culturally biased (ethnocentric), as it will reflect the norms and values of American culture - for example, the belief that attachment is related to anxiety on separation. This may not be the case in other cultures.
For example, in Japan infants rarely separated from mother and find the SSC very stressful. So the distress they show when she leaves is probably more due to shock than it is to insecure attachment. ‘Avoidant’ behaviour is considered very rude in this culture and is actively discouraged. This means that the SSC may not be a valid measure of attachment in different cultures.
Different countries are not the same as different cultures. It is over simplistic to view Britain or America as one single culture, as within each country there are many sub-cultures (based on class, religion etc.) that may differ in the nature of attachment types. This means that the findings may not be representative of the culture they are assumed to represent and will generalise back to only the sub-cultures that were sampled within the various cultures.
The final criticism relates to the fact that there was only one study conducted in China, which only studied 36 infants in total. This means that the sample was biased (as it is too small) and cannot be generalised to all the infants in China.
STRENGTH
Because the meta analysis is a statistical method if produced quanitative data (numerical data). The advantage of this is that it is easy to make comparisons (e.g. Western vs. Eastern Countries) and see general trends in the data.
Reference: Van Ijzendoorn, M.H., & Kroonenberg, P.M. (1988). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: A meta-analysis of the strange situation. Child Development, 59, 147-156.
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Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg