Cultural variations in attachment

• Van Izendoorn and Kroonenberg's research

  Study to look at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries to assess cultural variation
• Procedure of Van ijzendoorn

  1. Researchers located 32 studies of attachment where the Strange Situation had been used

  2. Meta-analysed the data for these 32 studies, combining and analysing the results together, weighting each study for its sample size
• Italian study (other study)


  • 50% were secure, with 36% insecure-avoidant. Researchers suggest this is because increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours and use professional childcare
• Korean study (other study)


  • Overall proportions of insecure and secure babies were similar to those in most countries, with most babies being secure. However, more of those classified as insecurely attached were resistant and only one baby was avoidant. This distribution is similar to the distribution of attachment types found in Japan
• Other study findings: Secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporting Bowlby's idea that attachment is innate and universal and this type is the universal norm
• The research also clearly shows that cultural practices have an influence on attachment type
• Van ijzendoorn's findings


  • There was wide variation between the proportions of attachment types in different studies
  • In all countries secure attachment was the most common classification
  • The proportion of secure attachment varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China
• Individualist cultures (1Jzendoorn’s findings)


  Rates of insecure-resistant attachment were similar to Ainsworth's original sample (all under 14%)
• Collectivist samples from China, Japan and Israel (1Jzendoorn findings)

  Rates of insecure-resistant attachment were above 25%
• Variations between results of studies within the same country were actually 150% greater than those between countries