Maternal deprivation

• Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation suggests if the child's monotropic attachment is disrupted during the critical period due to prolonged separation from the mother, this deprivation has negative and irreversible consequences
• The consequences of deprivation include social delinquency, affectionless psychopathy, and low IQ
• Bowlby's work onattachment led to significant positive changes to policies related to child welfare
• Bowlby's theory states that


  disruption to the attachment bond can cause damage to the child’s development and that there are three types:

  • short-term separation
  • long-term deprivation
  • privation
• Short-term separation


  Brief and temporary, eg. day care or short periods of hospitalization.
• Long-term deprivation


  when children are separated from those whom they've formed an attachment with.

  Long-term deprivation can cause negative emotional effects.

  
  

  e.g., divorce/separation/death/imprisonment.
• Privation


  when children are not allowed to form attachment bonds.

  This can have a very negative effect on children's development.
• PDD model - Bowlby


  A display a relatively clear set of behaviours in response to short term seperation.
• PDD model - Bowlby



  P - protest - crying/screaming

  D - despair - calm and apathetic

  D - detachment - infant warily resumes their responses to other people

  On return, they might reject the caregiver and continue displaying signs of anger.
• Barrett (1997) - tempermant


  • Emphasized the role of individual differences.
  • Argues that securely attached and more mature infants may better cope with separation.
• Rutter – Defining deprevation

  • Bowlby fails to distinguish between deprivation (attachment broken) and privation (never forming an attachment)
• Rogers and Pryor (1998) - 2+ divorces


  • children who experience more than two divorces have the lowest adjustment rates and the most behavioral problems.
• Furstenberg and Kiernan (2001)  - divorce impacts


  • children who have experienced divorce suffer not only emotionally, but also in terms of emotional wellbeing, academic attainment, and physical health.
• Hetherington and Stanley-Hagen (1999) - rare to not adapt


  few children suffer long-term adjustment problems and most adapt to their change in circumstances.

  This doesn't support Schaffer’s findings.
• Bulldog Banks study

  Study on a group of six refugee children aged 3-4 discovered by Russian troops at a concentration camp in the Czech Republic
• Bulldog Bank children

  • Believed to be orphaned at only a few months old
  • Had no time to form any attachments
• Care of Bulldog Bank children


  1. Stayed together at the Bulldog Banks Centre in West Sussex

  2. Received careful nurturing and support from staff
• Bulldog Bank children's behaviour


  • Highly aggressive, would spit and hit adults
  • No idea what toys were for, would destroy them
  • Limited language skills, increased aggression and hostility
  • Only engaged with staff if they needed something
  • Devoted to each other, very fair in sharing food
• Bulldog Banks study


  Weakens Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis because the children recovered from their early traumatic experiences
• When was the critical period?

  First 2 and a half years
• Goldfarb - emotional care


  lower IQ in children who remained in institutions whilst those fostered had higher emotional care
• Affectionless psychopathy


  • inability to experience the guilt of a strong emotion towards others
  • prevent ppl from forming normal relationships
  • associations with criminality - lack of remorse
• 44 Juvenile thieves


  Juveniles accused of stealing = interviewed for signs of affectionlesspsycoppsychopathyathy

  interviewed families if the child had proloprolongedng serpeseparationsrations from mothers
• 44 Thieves study - findings

  14 / 44 had affectionless psychopathy

  12 / 14 had experienced prolonged separation

  Rates of AP were lower in the control group of 44 non-criminals
• Maternal deprivation theory


  Children whose care is disrupted in the critical period develop serious social, emotional and intellectual difficulties, limiting their ability to have positive relationships in the future
• Bowlby believed that early maternal deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy and consequently, criminality!
• Lewis et al - count bowlby


  Through collecting qualitative data from interviews conducted with 500 juveniles, the researchers found no link between maternal deprivation and difficulty in forming relationships in later life.

  This suggests that Bowlby may have made incorrect causal conclusions.
• Bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves study - methodological limitations. 


  researcher bias - may have phrased the interview questions in a way that influenced the respondents to reply in a certain way i.e. leading questions.