cultural variations

• Anxious/insecure-avoidant attachments are more common among German infants due to different child-rearing styles e.g. mothers encourage independence
• Anxious/insecure-resistant attachments are more common in collectivist cultures like Japan (Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg, 1988)
• Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) conducted a meta-analysis study across a range of countries to assess cultural variation by looking at proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments.
• They also looked at the differences within the same countries to get an idea of variations within a culture.
• The meta-analysis summarised findings from 8 countries:

  • the UK, the US, Israel
  • Sweden, Holland, Germany
  • China, Japan
• they found that the most common attachment type was type B (secure) at 67%
• type A (insecure-avoidant) was 21%
•  type C (insecure-resistant) was 12%
• All countries except Germany found their most common attachment type to be secure attachment
• In general, type A attachment was found in more western countries, whilst type C was more common in Israel, China and Japan