Evaluation of Bowlby’s ‘44 juveniles’

• Generalisability of Bowlby's '44 juveniles study


  • Participants were all from London, cannot be applied to rural areas of England
  • Cannot be applied to other cultures
• Reliability of Bowlby's '44 juveniles study

  • Conclusion supported by other research
  • E.g. Rutter et al. on Romanian orphans
• Lack of emotional care in early life


  Children can recover from it by age 6 months
• Importance of maternal care


  • Motherless child needs care and affection from other carers
• Validity of Bowlby's '44 juveniles study


  • Relies on honesty (of parents)
  • Social desirability bias - mothers may lie to avoid judgement
• Ethics of Bowlby's '44 juveniles study


  • Included in-depth details of participants' lives
  • Details of participants' behaviour collected during interviews
  • Not clear to participants that info would be published