Cultural Variations in Attachment

• Method of van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

  • conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 difference countries that had used Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
• results of van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

  • secure attachments were the most common type of attachment, in all the cultures examines
  • japan and israel (collectivist cultures) showed higher levels of insecure-resistant attachment in comparison to other cultures
  • germany (individualistic cultures) showed higher levels of insecure-avoidant attachment, in comparison to other cultures
• strength of cultural variations

  • highlights the culture bias demonstrated in Ainsworth’s strange situation reporting significant differences in the distribution of attachment types in different culture
• limitation of cultural variations

  • comparing countries but not in fact cultures: within each country there may be many different subcultures, each with their own unique ways or rearing children. Researchers also noted that variance within countries was far greater than variance between countries
  • lower population validity: 27/32 of the studies in their meta-analysis were carried out in individualistic cultures