Cultural Variations in Attachment

• The Strange Situation procedure is used to assess individual differences in attachment types and can be used to investigate cultural variations.
• Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg's (1988) meta-analysis examined 32 studies from 8 countries and found that intra-cultural variation in attachment was greater than cross-cultural variation.
• The study found that secure attachment was the most common (65%), followed by avoidant (21%) and resistant (14%).
• Differences in socio-economic factors and levels of stress were speculated to contribute to the variations in attachment patterns.
• Takahashi (1990) replicated the Strange Situation with Japanese infants and found distinct cultural differences in their responses. He found that 0% of infants were insecure-avoidant, 32% were insecure-resistant, and 68% were secure.
• The strange situation has been used in a variety of cultural settings to identify whether patterns of attachments are universal or are subject to cultural influences.
• Van Ijzendoorn studied cultural variations in the UK, USA, Sweden, Japan, China, Holland, Germany & Israel.
• In the 32 studies nearly 2000 Strange Situation classifications were documented in total.
• In Van Ijzendoorn's study average findings were consistent with Ainsworth’s original research.
• Japan & Israel revealed a higher incidence of insecure resistant rather than insecure avoidant children.
• Chinese findings revealed the lowest rate of secure attachments (50%) with the remaining children falling into the other categories equally.
• It was concluded that there are cross-cultural differences in attachment.
• Germany had a higher incidence of insecure avoidant (35%) than insecure resistant types.
• Inter-cultural difference are between countries where as intra-cultural are differences within the same country.
• The UK and Sweden had the highest rates of secure attachment types.
• The UK had 75% of secure attachments.
• Sweden had 74% of secure attachment types.
• Germany had 35% of insecure avoidant attachment types.
• Israel had the highest % of insecure resistant attachment types (29%).
• In Van Ijzendoorn overall most children are securely attached.
• In individualistic cultures secure attachment was greater.
• In collectivist cultures the rates were greater for insecure attachment types when comparing individualistic cultures.
• There was more variation from within the cultures (intra-cultural) especially in Israel.