Cross-Cultural Research

Cross-Cultural Research Because attachment theory is grounded in evolu- tionary biology, one of its core assumptions is that infant-caregiver attachment is a universal phenome- non. This assumption is controversial. At the very least, however, research from around the world sup- ports the claim that all infants develop attachment re- lationships, secure or insecure, with their primary caregivers. Beyond this, there is considerable evi- dence that the number of children who develop a se- cure pattern of attachment is proportionately similar across cultures. In African, Chinese, Israeli, Japanese, Western European, and American cultures alike, most children, about two-thirds, are securely attached to their caregivers. The proportion of children who are insecure- avoidant or insecure-ambivalent, however, varies across cultures. Consider that in Japan a higher pro- portion of children are classified as ambivalent and a lower proportion of children are classified as avoidant than in Western European and American cultures. Japanese infants, in fact, are more likely to be very upset during separations from their caregivers and 36 ATTACHMENTless likely to explore the environment than American infants. Based on these data and using the Japanese culture as an example, Fred Rothbaum and his col- leagues offered a critique of the universality of attach- ment that focused on cultural variations in caregiver sensitivity and child competence. Rothbaum and his colleagues argued that care- giver sensitivity in Japan is a function of parents’ ef- forts to maintain high levels of emotional closeness with their children, but that in the United States it is a function of parents’ efforts to balance emotional closeness with children’s assumed need to become self-sufficient. In fact, Japanese parents spend more time in close contact with their infants than parents in the United States. Regardless, most attachment re- searchers now agree that caregiver sensitivity is only one important contributor to attachment security. In all cultures, other factors such as how much stimula- tion parents provide their children, as well as child characteristics such as temperament, are likely to in- fluence the development of attachment. The link between attachment security and child competence has also received scrutiny from a cross- cultural perspective. Child characteristics that are as- sociated with security in Western cultures, such as in- dependence, emotional openness, and sociability, are less valued in other cultures. Attachment security may lead to social behaviors that vary across cultures but are nonetheless adaptive in context. For example, Japanese secure children may be more likely than Western secure children to depend on others to meet personal needs, because interpersonal dependency is valued in the Japanese culture. In other words, the characteristics of child competence may differ across cultures as a result of culture-specific pressures. See also: AINSWORTH, MARY DINSMORE SALTER; BOWLBY, JOHN; PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS Bibliography Ainsworth, Mary D. S., Mary C. Blehar, Everett Waters, and Sally Wall. Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1978. Bowlby, John. ‘‘The Influence of Early Environment in the Devel- opment of Neurosis and Neurotic Character.’’ International Journal of Psychoanalysis 21 (1940):154–178. Bowlby, John. Attachment and Loss, Vol. 1: Attachment. New York: Basic, 1969. Bowlby, John. Attachment and Loss, Vol. 2: Separation. New York: Basic, 1973. Bowlby, John. Attachment and Loss, Vol. 3: Loss. New York: Basic, 1980. 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Vaughn, German Posada, and Kiyomi Kondo-Ikemura eds., Caregiving, Cultural, and Cognitive Perspectives on Secure- Base Behavior and Working Models. Chicago: University of Chi- cago Press, 1995. Waters, Everett, Nancy S. Weinfield, and Claire E. Hamilton. ‘‘The Stability of Attachment Security from Infancy to Adolescence and Early Adulthood: General Discussion.’’ Child Development 71 (2000):703–706. Kathleen McCartney Eric Dearin