cross-cultural variations in attachment

• aim 


  Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonberg

  to investigate cross-cultural variation in attachment
• procedure 


  used a meta-analysis

  only selected studies that used SS

  studies excluded if included special group and excluded those involving fewer than 35 infants

  examined data from 2000 strange situations from 32 studies in 8 countries
• findings

  secure attachment most common in all countries

  avoidant was the next most common in all countries (particularly Germany - 35%) except japan (27%) and Israel (29%) - high levels of resistant attachment = little variation between cultures

  however they did find variations= within a culture was 1.5 times as a variation between cultures
• conclusion

  global pattern seems to be similar to US with secure being the norm

  supports the idea that secure attachment is important for healthy development

  cross cultural similarities similarities may be explained by the effects of mass media on parenting views