To what extent do research studies support the view that disruption of attachment bonds has long lasting effects on the individual?

Spitz and Wolf’s study in 1946 both refutes and supports the view that disruption of attachment bonds has long lasting effects on the individual. The participants were 100 psychologically normal children in long-term hospital care. Spitz and Wolf found that if the participants were away in hospital for longer than three months, the effects of attachment bonds were long lasting, which supports the theory. However, those in hospital less than three months recovered quickly, which refutes the view.

Douglas also conducted an experiment on maternal deprivation and bond breaking. It was a longitudinal study of 5000 children who were assessed regularly up until age 26. This makes the study more reliable because it involved a lot of people and was longitudinal. They found that children who had spent more than one week in hospital, or who had repeated admissions under the age of four were more likely to have behaviour problems in adolescence and be poor readers. This suggests that the disruption of bonds does cause long-term damage as many years later they still showed a lack of development. However, could be other reasons for this. For example, Clarke and Clarke stated that children in disadvantaged homes needed more hospital treatment because of poor living conditions. The poor living conditions could be a reason for their lack of development, not deprivation. Or, their symptoms could be due to anxiety of being in hospital.

Widdowson in 1951 recorded a case of deprivation dwarfism in orphans (they had been maternally deprived because they had no caregiver). When the orphans were provided with dietary supplements there was no change. However, when the supervisor changed from a mean, unsympathetic one to a sensitive one who provided the orphans with the care they needed, they grew again. This refutes the view that disruption of attachment bonds has long lasting effects on the individual because these individuals recovered and the effects were not long lasting at all. However, this study was based on children in an orphanage, and there could have been many other reasons for lack of physical growth such as poor living conditions, lack of food or the punishment they received.

In 1998, Rutter found similar results to Widdowson. He followed 111 Romanian orphans adopted in the UK before the age of two. They were physically and mentally undeveloped but by the age of 4 they had all improved. Again, this refutes the view that that disruption of attachment bonds has long lasting effects on the individual, because the orphans recovered when they got a caregiver. This study was only based on Romanian children though and the same findings may not apply to children in other parts of the world.

Although there are some studies that do support it, it is to a small extent that research studies support the view that the disruption of attachment bonds has long-lasting effects on the individual. This is because most studies found that when the child’s situation changed for the better, the child recovered and therefore the effects cannot be long lasting.