Different factors have an effect on cross-cultural variations in attachment such as the role of the mother and whether the culture is individualist or collectivist.
The mother-infant relationship is an important concept of how an attachment is formed and affects all humans, including all cultural boundaries and/or ethnic child rearing practices. In some cultures, the child-care duties are taken on mainly by the mother leading to a strong attachment between mother and infant. However, in some cultures the mother works away from home and may have to let the infant be looked after by another person (other relative or childcare) causing the mother not to be strongly attached or even the ‘attachment figure’ to the infant. In a study conducted in Germany, it was found that two thirds of the sample of infants were insecurely attached and half this figure to be avoidant. This avoidant nature can be attributed to the fact that independence is highly valued by the German mother and she is likely to have encouraged self-reliance before the child’s first birthday. The researchers found that the normative requirement of early independence of the child came at a cost as in later years they were found to be in poor peer relationships.
Many different studies have been carried out across the world in countries such as Africa, Japan, Germany, China and the US and a meta-analysis can be used to draw general conclusions from the studies. In many of the studies the strange situation was used to determine the mother-infant reaction. The strange situation consists of 8 steps:
- Parent and infant are introduced to the experimental room.
- Parent and infant are alone. Parent does not participate while infant explores.
- Stranger enters, converses with parent, then approaches infant. Parent leaves inconspicuously.
- Stranger’s behaviour is geared to that of infant.
- Parent greets and comforts infant, then leaves again.
- Infant is left alone.
- Stranger enters and gears behaviour to that of infant.
- Parent enters, greets infant, and picks up infant; stranger leaves inconspicuously.
Separation protest, the infant's willingness to explore, stranger anxiety, and reaction to reunion with the caregiver are the key behaviours used to assess the security/insecurity of the attachment relationship.
Van IJzendoom and Kroonenberg carried out a meta-analysis of research which had studied attachments in other cultures. They compared only the findings of studies that had used the strange situation. It was found that the differences in variation between cultures/countries were small and concluded that secure attachment is the most common form of attachment in every country. However, significant differences were found between the distributions of insecure attachments. For example, in Western cultures the dominant insecure type is anxious/avoidant, whereas in non-Western cultures it is anxious/resistant, with China being the only exception. The high similarity in attachment across cultures could be explained by the effects of mass media which spread ideas about parenting encouraging parents across the world to nurture their children in the same way. In reference to variation within cultures, they found that that this was 1.5 times greater than variation between cultures.
The strange situation was used in a study in Africa, where it was found that 61% of infants demonstrated secure attachment to their mothers and 54% to other non-maternal caregivers. In this culture, the mothers carried out the physical caring activities while the non-maternal caregivers were more involved with socialising and cognitive development activities. It was also found that the babies greeted their caregivers by extending a hand which mirrors the culturally accepted behaviour of adults who greet one another with a handshake.
One of the complexities of cross-cultural research is the acknowledgment that infants and children learn to behave in a manner favourable to their successful adaptation within the cultural norms around them. Mary Ainsworth carried out two sets of studies on infants in different cultures, one in Uganda and one in America. She found that essentially the attachment relationship was applicable to the two diverse cultures but she recognised that some attachment behaviours differed such that American children greeted their ‘attachment figure’ with a hug and a kiss whereas the African children clapped when their ‘attachment figure’ returned.
Cultural differences in attachment behaviours could be explained by the childrearing methods used within a country. For example, it would be expected that children brought up in the US (an individualist culture) would be brought up differently that children in Japan (a collectivist culture). This can be seen in the example that the emotional reaction to most US children to separation is anxiety because the absence of the mother threatens the newly developing child due to the emphasis on the importance of the individual within the US culture. With Japanese children, however, it is sadness and loss because the child feels they are no longer part of the group due to the Japanese idea of the importance of the group.
