Cultural variations

• Ijzendoorn and Krooneberg - looked at proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments to assess cultural variation.
• Ijendoorn and Kroonenberg - procedure

  • meta-analysed 32 studies of attachment with strange situation
  • 8 countries - 15 in US
  • 1,990 children
• Ijzendoorn and kroonenberg: findings -

  • secure attachment most common classification. 75% in Britain. 50% in China.
  • individualist culture - insecure-resitant rates similar to Ainsworths original sample. - 15%
  • collectivist culture (China, Japan, Israel) - insecure-resistant rates were above 25%
  • variation between results within the same country were greater than those between countries.
• Italian study - Simonelli

  • assessed 76 babies aged 12 months using strange situation
  • 50% - secure (lower rate )
  • 36% - insecure-avoidant (higher rate)
  • increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours and use professional childcare
• Korean study - Jin

  • 87 babies assessed with strange situation
  • proportions of insecure and secure babies similar in most countries - most babies secure
  • only one baby insecure avoidant
  • similar to ijzendoorn and kroonenberg Japan study
  • similar child-rearing styles
• AO3 cultural variations- conducted by indigenous psychologists 


  Same cultural background as the participants. Problems in cross-cultural research can be avoided - misunderstandings of language used, difficulty communicating or bias from stereotypes.

  • enhances validity
• AO3 cultural variations- confounding variables 


  Sample characteristics such as poverty, age, social class and urban makeup confound results. Environmental variables may differ between studies: size of room (less visible proximity-seeking), toys available (make babies explore more).
• AO3 cultural variations - imposed etic 


  Assumes an idea or technique that works in one cultural context will work in another. E.G: in Strange situation the babies' response to reunion. Britain + US -lack affection on reunion indicates avoidant attachment. In Germany this would be interpreted as independence