Cultural variations in attachment

• What is the most important study of cross-cultural variations in attachment?

  Van Ijzendoorn's 1988 meta-analysis
• What did Van Ijzendoorn's 1988 meta-analysis cover?


  • 2000 classifications
  • 32 studies
  • 8 countries
  • All used Strange Situation to classify
• What were the general findings of Van Ijzendoorn's 1988 meta-analysis?


  • Variations within cultures 1.5x greater than variations across cultures
  • Secure attachment = most common across ALL cultures
• What were the findings about secure attachments in Van Ijzendoorn's 1988 meta-analysis?


  • Highest: UK (75%)
  • 2nd highest: Sweden (74%)
  • Lowest: China (50%)
• What were the findings about insecure-resistant attachments in Van Ijzendoorn's 1988 meta-analysis?


  • Highest: Israel (29%)
  • 2nd highest: Japan (27%)
  • Lowest: UK (3%)
• What happened in Grossman + Grossman's 1991 study into German infants' attachment?

  • More insecurely German attached children than securely attached
• What were the findings about insecure-avoidant attachment in Van Ijzendoorn's 1988 meta-analysis?


  • Highest: Germany (35%)
  • 2nd highest: Holland (26%)
  • Lowest: Japan (5%)
• What are the strengths of Van Ijzendoorn's 1988 meta-analysis?


  • Well-conducted meta-analysis
  • Avoided very small studies + specific samples
  • Used only SS -> comparing like-for-like = results more reliable
  • Large sample size
  • Results more likely to be representative + therefore generalisable
• What are the weaknesses of Van Ijzendoorn's 1988 meta-analysis?


  • Potential cultural bias
  • Ethnocentric research using imposed etic
  • SS classifications based on behaviour of infants in USA -> possible that it's not suitable for classifying infants from other cultures, e.g. collectivist cultures (Japan, China, Israel, etc)
  • Unequal number of studies per country = findings not equally generalisable
• What are the two other key studies of cross-cultural variations in attachment?


  • Takahashi (1990)
  • Grossman + Grossman (1991)
• What happened in Takahashi's 1990 study into Japanese infants' attachment?


  • 60 middle-class Japanese infants
  • 68% secure
  • 32% insecure-resistant
  • 0% insecure-avoidant
  • 'Alone' scenarios had to be stopped for 90% of infants -> WAY too distressing because they had simply never been left alone before!!
• What happened in Grossman + Grossman's 1991 study into German infants' attachment?



  • More insecurely German attached children than securely attached