Cultural Variations in Attachment

• van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg procedure

  - Meta-analysis of 32 studies of the strange situation.

  - 2000 infants.

  - Studies in 8 different countries: USA, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Israel, China and Japan.
• van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg findings

  - secure = majority - 70%

  - lowest % of secure = China

  - highest % of secure = GB

  - western countries that supported independence (e.g. Germany) had high levels of insecure avoidant

  - eastern countries that were more culturally close (e.g. Japan) had high levels of insecure resistant

  
• Individualist


  Culture in which the individual is valued more highly than the group

  
  

  E.g. United States, Canada, United Kingdom
• Collectivist


  Cultures in which the individual is less important than the group.
• Simonelli et al - an Italian study

  - Conducted a study in Italy to see whether proportions of babies of different attachment styles were the same as those found in previous attachment studies.

  - Assessed 76 12-month-old babies using the strange situation.

  - Found 50% were secure, 36% were insecure-avoidant.

  - This is a lower % of secure attachment that has been found in previous studies.

  - They suggest this is because increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours & use daycare.

  - These findings suggest cultural changes can make a dramatic difference to patterns of secure & insecure attachment.
• Jin et al - a Korean study

  - Korean study - strange situation.

  - 87 children

  - Overall proportions the same between secure and insecure however, only 1 insecure avoidant.

  - Similar to Japanese distribution - they have similar child rearing practices
• Strengths of cultural variations in attachment

  Indigenous researchers

  - Indigenous researchers are those from the same cultural background as the participants.

  - Enhances the validity of the data collected.
• Limitations of cultural variations in attachment

  Confounding variables

  - Studies conducted in different countries are not usually matched for methodology when they are compared in reviews/meta-analyses.

  
  

  Imposed etic

  - Imposed etic occurs when we assume an idea/technique that works in one cultural context will work in another.