Japan

• Ijzendoorn & Kroonenbergs research

  They conducted a study to look at the proportions of secure, insecure avoidant, insecure resistant attachments across a range of countries to assess cultural variation: they also looked at the differences within the same countries to get an idea of variations within a culture.
• The researchers located 32 studies of attachment where the SS has been used to investigate the proportions of babies with different attachment types: conducted in 8 countries (15 studies were done in the USA). Overall the studies yielded results for 1990 children. The data from all 32 studies was meta-analysed.
• The findings show there was a large variation between the proportions of attachment types in different studies. Secure atlachment was the most common in all countries; the proportion varied from 75% (Britain) to 50% (China). In individualist cultures, rates of insecure - resistant attachment were similar to Ainsworth's original sample (all under 14%.) but in collectivist samples from China, Japan and Israel rates were above 25% and rates of insecure-avoidant attachment were reduced.
• Variations between results of studies within the same country were 150% greater than those between countries. Eg. In the USA, one study found 46% securely attached compared to another as 90%.