During the childhood, from birth, the child may be exposed to a range of significant relationships and each of which will be capable of influencing the way in which the child develops. The relationship between a baby and a caregiver is said to be the most important social relationship. (Howe, 1995, P46)
James Robertson and Bowlby recognised and described the upset and pain that children experienced when separated from their parents and the effects this separation had social development of the child. This is evident in a study done by Bowlby at a clinic for mentally disturbed adolescents. He studied the histories of 44 of the adolescents, all of whom were known to be thieves or convicted of theft. It was found that 17 of them had been separated from their mothers for six months or more before they were five years old. Bowlby claimed that maternal separation would have disrupted the child’s attachment. (Howe, 1995, P47)
Bowlby published conclusions from this research in a scientific paper entitled 44 Juvenile thieves in which it states “There is a very strong case indeed for believing that prolonged separations of a child from his mother (or mother substitute) during the first five years of life stands foremost among the causes of delinquent character development” (Davenport, 1994 P47)
Bowlby’s analysis of the case revealed that 14 out of the 17 juvenile thieves who were maternally deprived were cold and uncaring towards their crimes. They had little feelings of shame or guilt for what they had done. They didn’t seem to posses the normal forms of decency that a person would possess. Bowlby believed that of lack of ‘mothers love’ caused the attachment relationship to fail. His studies suggest that in order for a child to grow socially and have understanding and care of the consequences of their actions they need to have experienced love and care from a mother or caregiver. (Davenport, 1994, P10)
The juveniles lacked social empathy and there are studies to suggest that insecurely attached children lack normal emotional remorse and guilt for their actions. Lack of social empathy within insecurely attached children has been highlighted in play studies. A report by Professor Alan Sroufe entitled ‘The role of infant-caregiver attachment in development’ shows that compared to securely attached children, the play of those with insecurely attached relationship histories lack complexity and element of fantasy play. The make-believe play is extremely important in developing social empathy. The make-believe play allows the child to understand and relate to other peoples emotional states. Children who don’t engage in this type of play show a lack of social empathy or ability to understand the thoughts or feelings of other people and fail to develop a sense of moral senses (Howe, 1995, P 35-37). This information assists in the understanding as to why some children have no feelings of remorse or guilt when they have done something immoral. The juvenile thieves that Bowlby studied admitted that they had no shame for what they had done and would continue to steal. Understanding the attachment theory and the effects that lack of attachment has on children and their social development has proved to be influential amongst childcare and social workers and health services. Bowlby’s theories were supported by the World Health organisation in the 1950s and 1970s. His research and findings brought about changes to several professions that cared for children. (Davenport, 1994, P15- 17)
Critics of Bowlby’s theory say that Bowlby may have overlooked many other variables that may have contributed to the reason for the Juveniles delinquent behaviour, including the reasons for the separation in the first place and what happened after the separation.
The relationship that a child builds with a caregiver can be adversely affected due to the care that the child is given from birth. Studies have revealed that raising children in institutions have great adverse effects on the emotional and social development of the child. In the 1930’s David Levy spoke of children in New York Founding Hospital “These children, though often pleasant on the surface, seemed indifferent underneath”. He questioned whether there could be a “deficiency disease of the emotional life, comparable to a deficiency of vital nutritional elements within the developing organism” (Karen R, 1998, P13)
The lack of proper individual attention, care and stimulation has extremely negative effect on the child. Studies showed that children placed in an orphanage within the first six months of their life displayed normal behaviour, smiling at the caregiver and crying for attention. Research suggests that babies have a genetic tendency to cry and look for attention and comfort to meet their needs. When the needs are not met the child may regress and stop looking to the caregiver for fulfilment of its needs. The child gradually interacts less and less with the caregiver as they began to realise their attempts for attention will not be met. This was described by Joyce Robertson as three stages, from distress, through despair, to detachment. (Davenport, 1994, P21)
The social skills that are developed at an early age, like smiling, crying, are genetically inherited and a child is predisposed to display these behaviours. Using these behaviours, the child would attempt to form a relationship with the caregiver to fulfil their needs and develop an attachment with the caregiver. If the caregiver does not respond to the child to fulfil their needs or show any emotional affection, the child will not form a bond with the caregiver. With continued lack of interaction and response, the child may not develop emotionally. In order for the child to develop, they need to receive love and attention from the caregiver.
Rene Spitz, an American did a study on children raised in a poor orphanage in South America. The orphanage was understaffed and the staff were overworked. They concentrated on fulfilling the child’s physical needs and not their emotional needs. This led to the children being unresponsive to any emotional stimulation. They had not experienced emotional attachment with any caregiver and as a result the children appeared passive. (Davenport, 1994, P11)
Bowlby proposed that the attachment between the child and the caregiver could not be broken, within the first few years, without causing serious and permanent social, intellectual and emotional damage. This theory was based on studies of institutionalised children in the 1930s and 1940s by Rene Spitz and New York Psychologist William Goldfarb.
Goldfarb carried out a longitudinal study of two groups of 15 orphans. Almost all of one group were fostered from an understaffed orphanage before they were nine months old. The other group had all spent at least the first 3 years in the orphanage before being fostered. Goldfarb visited the children four times, at the ages of 3, 6, 8 and 12 years old. He measured their intelligence, language skills, social maturity and ability to form relationships. In all cases the adopted children did much better. This evidence shows that children who had a caregiver from an earlier age did best. (Davenport, 1994, P 12)
There is growing research to suggest that insecurely attached children can benefit from therapy and social care by introducing affectionate and responsive caregivers. The effect of institutionalisation can be counteracted to an extent if a child is given a chance within a foster home where the there is a willingness of the caregiver to devote attention to the child to help develop. Research suggests that lack of attachment can have detrimental effects, but with the right care and assistance children can recover from effects of detachment. (Juffer, F., et al., 2002).
An example of this is revealed in a report done by Jarmila Koluchova in 1972. There was a case of two identical twin boys in Czechoslovakia who suffered severe emotional and physical deprivations. The children’s mother died just after they were born and their father couldn’t cope and they were taken into institutionalised care. At the age of 18 months they were returned to the father and step mother where they received little care or attention from their parents. They suffered severe neglect and abuse for five and half years. They were taken into foster care at the age of 7. They found the children were several physically and mentally retarded. Their development age was that of a three year old. With intensive care, specialist educations and a loving foster home they were able to develop intellectually, socially and emotionally. (Davenport, 1994, P20)
In order to look at institutions today and examine if the same problems still exist, I spoke with the Director of Chernobyl Children’s Trust. The Trust works in many orphanages in Belarus. Many of the children in the orphanages are often regimental and mechanical. Children in state care in Belarus are entitled by law to be fed, clothed and educated. However their emotional needs are not mentioned in the law. From the experience that the Trust has, it is evident that many orphanages, no matter how well the orphanage was run, the children never felt any love from a caregiver and as a result may not form an attachment. Many of the caregivers are unqualified, underpaid and underappreciated and leave them systematically empathetic.
One example of this was in an orphanage where there were a number of small children rocking back and forth all day long and grasping at an old torn toy or teddy for comfort. These children had been institutionalised at a young age. They look for comfort and love but when they found none from the caregivers they sought objects for comfort. This may be a substitute for the lack of emotional bond with a caregiver. This would highlight a child has an intrinsic need to seek affection and love and a bond. This same idea was demonstrated in a study done by Harry Harlow with two young rhesus monkeys. They were given a choice between two different “mothers.” Harlow removed young monkeys from their natural mothers a few hours after birth and left them to be "raised" by these mother surrogates. One was made of soft terrycloth, but provided no food. The other was made of wire, but provided food from an attached baby bottle. The experiment demonstrated that the baby monkeys spent significantly more time with their cloth mother than with their wire mother. “This data makes it obvious that contact comfort is a variable of overwhelming importance in the development of affectional response, whereas lactation is a variable of negligible importance,” Harlow explained (Harlow, 1958, 13, 673-685). Harlow’s experiments offered irrefutable proof that a child seeks love and a bond.
In order to encourage a bond between the child and caregiver, social workers in Belarus recommend a ‘lock-down’ approach within a house with which a child is adopted into. This means they encourage only interaction between the child and the adoptive parents for the first weeks of the placement in order to encourage an attachment to form with the caregiver. The reason for this is the social workers realise that a bond must be formed. If a child is exposed to several caregivers and from multiple bonds it may cause confusion and lead to developmental delay.
In Belarus there are many ‘social’ orphans, where by their biological families may be living but their parents have their rights removed by the courts. Invariable, there has been massive trauma in the family. This does pose the question if the children are void of affection and incapable of social development due to previous trauma and circumstances rather than lack of attachment.
In light of this evidence, it is obvious that every infant and young child should have at least one principal caretaker who can and will provide the unconditional love necessary for normal emotional and social development. This is clearly a tremendous task, and society is probably not yet read, or able, to provide such care. Yet while it may be impossible in our world society to assure a loving caregiver for every infant and child, the desirability, indeed the necessity, of doing so must be recognized, and steps taken toward its achievement. The attachment theory is useful in order to understand why a bond is necessity and the recognition of this can be used by caregivers to assist in the recovery of the child if they have never developed a healthy attachment relationship.
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