Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

• What is deprivation?

  In the context of child development, deprivation refers to the loss of emotional care that would normally be provided by a primary caregiver.
• Bowlby suggested attachment was essential for the healthy social and emotional development of children and it stands to reason that deprivation of this could have negative effects on social, intellectual and emotional development even if it was a short-term disruption. 
• separation

  child not being in the presence of a primary caregiver.

  Only becomes a problem if the child becomes deprived of emotional care ( can happen even if mother is present, and say depressed)
• privation


  never having a caregiver to begin with/ not having the opportunity to form a bond in the first instance
• maternal deprivation


  a bond of attachment has been formed with the main caregiver but it has been disrupted for some reason.
• robertson and robertson (1989)


  
  

  
  

  • studied 5 children taken into care beacuse their mothers were in hospital having a second child
  • John (17 months) placed in a residential nursery for 9 days
  • He wasnt able to attach to any nursing staff and rejected his mother upon reunion
  • other children followed similar behaviours as John (PDD Model)
• PDD model demonstrates the short term effects of separation and deprivation.

  Protest – intense and panicked

  Despair – loss of hope/apathetic

  Detachment – less distressed/more anger

  
  

  
  

  They found that most infants who had experienced separation or deprivation displayed these behaviours, but that most children could re-establish attachments to caregiver overtime.
• affectionless psychopath


  characterised as a lack of affection, guilt about their actions and empathy for their victims
• Bowlby (1944) 44 thieves study: Aim

  examine the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation
• Bowlby (1944) 44 thieves study : Procedure

  • Families also interviewed to establish whether 'thieves' had prolonged early separation from their mothers
  • compared to a control group of 44 non-criminal but emotionally disturbed young people
• Bowlby (1944) 44 Thieves Study: Findings

  • 14/44 could be described as affectionless psychopaths. 12 of these people experienced prolonged separation form their mothers in the first 2 years of their lives
  • 5/30 remaining thieves had experienced separations
  • only 2/44 in control group experienced long separations
• Bowlby (1944) 44 Thieves Study: Conclusion

  prolonged early separation/ deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy
• Bowlby (1944) 44 Juvenile Study : Strengths

  • Practical applications – Greater stability in childcare practice has been developed through day-care centres assigning caregivers to children and hospital visiting hours have been reviewed so that children can maintain contact with their parents.
  • Some national governments offer more financial support for young families in terms of maternity and paternity leave. For instance, Sweden offers 480 days parental leave, clearly highlighting its commitment to support children’s early attachment experiences.
• Bowlby (1944)44 Juvenile Study: Weaknesses

  • Bowlby asking the adolescent participants to recall separations experienced years earlier so their responses would have been subject to inaccuracies
  • Bowlby found a correlation between early separation and delinquency but we cannot conclude that the separation was the cause. Could have a third unidentified variable that accounted for the delinquency
  • Bowlby failed to distinguish between separation from an attachment figure, deprivation and privation. Rutter argues that the 3 circumstances have different long-term effects which Bowlby overlooked.