Mary Ellen was the first case of child abuse in the nineteenth century and this was brought to the court’s attention to realise that children are not just their parents’ possessions, but children are individuals with their own rights and responsibilities and should have welfare rights. What happened was that the neighbours objected to the way how Mary was been treated and at the time, the only law that was available only concerned animals and law argued that the child was a member of the animal kingdom (Flanagan, 1999, pg 3)
Just imagine this scenario, a mother is going into hospital for a few days and she has child, the child cannot stay with relatives or neighbours and option of temporary foster care is considered for the child. The child has not been separated from his or her mother since birth and a child does not understand what is happening around him or her. There came a time, when a child was taken into an institionalised house, where it was part of the job of carers to just look after child and move on to the next, there was no consistent care and as result the child began to feel it. A first it would be daunting for a child, just imagine going being three years of age and going to place where you never been and been looked after by someone else. Children are generally used to having one carer to look after him or her, but not five or six during one day. After inititally feeling a bit apprehensive, the child settles down into a routine and starts mixing with other children and playing with toys. But gradually as days went by the child becomes distressed and begans to realise that something is not right and slightly cries. But gradually as the day went on, he becomes distressed and does not understand the concept of what is happening and cannot express his or her thoughts. During this time a child may refuse to eat or does not want to be involved with other children and misses his primary carer. He or she also misses their own surroundings and playing with his own toys and then as the days progress he feels more distressed as he realises slightly what’s happening and then in on the 9th day when his mother came to visit he, looked at her in away she has never seen before. (James and Joyce Robertson) This happened and was filmed over a period of nine days as an experiment.
The strengths of theory was that children from an early age need bonding from parents and that child should always be with his primary carers during the early years, but on the other hand, it could effect the child later on in life and that could have an impact on quality of life. For example, not going out or mixing with other people and preferring own company. It could also have an effect on later in life, for example, not mixing with adults, no confidence to meet new people or feelings of isolation. On the other hand, the child could grow up become adult that cares and protects children and would not let a child be a child and could become overprotective towards others. But in practice, children in hospitals now have named nurses, the nurses where brightly coloured dresses so they look like playworkers rather than your typical nurse, the visiting hours are more flexible so that children can be with parents at a convenient time and some NHS trusts have the option of accommodation so that the parents can stay with the child during the hospital stay and also the information given is in child friendly language so that the child understand what is going on.
I will now be critising the work of the John Bowby (1907-1990) and how these theories are put in practice. Bowby argues that attachment is inbuilt within the child the he also argues that the first three years of a babies life, requires a monotronic bond with the mother and without these three years of monotropic bonding, this can lead to anti-social behaviour, difficulty building relationships and/or mental health issues. Bowby argues that “children who experienced early and prolonged separations from their caregiver were more likely to delinquents or lack sympathy for others” Then in 1953 he goes on says that “prolonged deprivation of a young child of maternal care may have grave and for reaching effects on this character… similar in form …to deprivation of vitamin(s) infancy” (Bowby,1953) But in this day in age, it would suggest that mothers should at home like the old days and should not work, but just bring up children” But surely that has economic and political implications. Also during the world wars, men needed their jobs and it was way to get women to stay at home and bring up children, but on the other-hand could be misused by politicians and that was what a psychologist argued in 1987. (Rodman,1987) Then Reber (1995) defined bonding as “The forming of a relatonship…specifically between the mother and the newborn,” whilsts others distinguish it is a separate process for the few hours of life of the baby. Such as when the baby has just been born into a new world. But in this age, there could be complications whereas the mothers and or baby’s life is in danger and there is no choice but to do a C Section or Caesarean section. But as result, the mother looses the bonding at the start. Other medical complications, could mean that the baby once born may have to go into a incubator for breathing and this could also impact on the mother. As although the mother can get close with the child, it will not be the same as picking up the child for the time and bonding.
He also did a study of forty four young thieves and found links between their affectionless behaviour and their childhood experiences of chaotic families is marked by the lack of consistent caregiver and this could effect their equality. Why do some people commit crimes to get into prison? Some may argue that it could because of the lack of bonding at the early stages of life, childhood experiences, poverty, abuse or feelings of growing up fast. You could also crititise Bowbys by arging that there could be other factors that could affect the childhood development. For example, environmental factors could be as result of anti-social behaviour, for example Rutter, Quinton and & Hill (1990) argued that that peer pressure and relationships could play part in this, for example, children and adolescents are more likely to follow and conform to their friends and may seem more cooler than adults. Moffit (1993) argues that maternal drug use, poor prenatal nutrition, exposure to toxic agents, child abuse and birth complications could also contribute to anti-social behaviour.