Wrapping Up Attachment

Measuring Attachment: THE STRANGE SITUATION

Mary Ainsworth and colleagues developed a procedure to measure attachment in one- to two-year-olds and caregivers (1978). This famous experiment, known as the Strange Situation, involves observing the baby’s response to the stresses of a stranger and separation and reunion with the caregiver. The experimental procedure:

1. Parent and infant enter the experimental room and baby explores alone as parent watches.
2. A stranger comes in, greets the caregiver, and interacts with the baby while the caregiver leaves inconspicuously (first separation episode).
3. Parent returns and comforts infant (first reunion episode) while stranger leaves.
4. Parent leaves alone (second separation).
5. Stranger re-enters and gears behavior toward the baby.
6. Parent enters and picks up baby (second reunion) and stranger leaves.

This method was created in response to the limitations and criticisms of the Strange Situation methodology (Waters & Deane, 1985). The AQS provides a much more thorough (but time-consuming) assessment. Advantages include testing attachment outside the laboratory setting and using the test with children up to five years old. The test consists of observations for 100 items that cover the span of attachment behaviors. Children are then placed on a continuum that runs from secure to insecure attachments, rather than in one category or another. The ASQ doesn’t provide different classifications in the insecure category.

The way a child responds determines whether his or her attachment pattern is classified as secure or insecure. Each attachment type is characterized by certain behaviors that indicate the quality of the infant-caregiver relationship. Researchers look specifically at two behaviors during the Strange Situation to measure attachment:

• How much exploration does the baby do?
• How does she or he react to the parent’s departure and return?

Secure attachment:

In the Strange Situation, the securely attached child will explore freely and engage with the stranger because of the security she or he derives from the presence of the parent. The child uses the parent as a secure base and will protest or resist separation from her. When the parent returns, a securely attached child shows joy at the reunion. This is the most adaptive style and is seen in approximately 65% of infants in North America. Babies become securely attached when their primary caregiver responds sensitively to their emotional and physical needs. Care that is consistent, warm, and appropriate, helps the child build positive relationships and learn to regulate stress.

Insecure attachment:

Ainsworth’s research identified two different types of insecure attachment. A third category, disorganized attachment (Main & Solomon, 1990), was later added because of the large number of infants who did not fit into one of the original three classifications. These babies react differently but are the same in their insecurity regarding their primary relationship.

• Avoidant Attachment - These infants ignore or avoid their caregiver and show little reaction to her presence or absence. The avoidant baby treats all adults--from strangers to the attachment figure--in a similar way. This attachment pattern may result from parenting that discourages sadness, pushes independence, and doesn’t offer comfort. This is the pattern of 20% of North American babies.
• Resistant Attachment - This is the attachment type for 10 to 15% of American children. These children do not feel secure enough to explore the room or interact with the stranger. Instead resistant infants will cling to their parent and became very distressed at her absence. But when the parent returns, the child is not comforted and reacts with a mixture of emotions. This explains why this attachment pattern was originally called ambivalent. Inconsistent parenting that is focused on meeting the needs of the parent rather than the infant probably causes resistant attachment. This may be because these parents are often preoccupied with unresolved emotional issues from their own past.
• Disorganized Attachment - This category shows an attachment type so confused that it is an unorganized mix of ambivalent and avoidant patterns. These children will not react to separations and reunions in a coherent fashion. Instead they appear confused or fearful because their caregiver provides a source of stress rather than comfort. Infant behaviors include dazed facial expressions, trance-like withdrawal, and unusual frozen positioning. Disorganized attachment appears to be the result of either frightening or frightened parenting behaviors. Their care can be rejecting, unpredictable, ineffectual, erratic, abusive, or hostile. Parents of children with disorganized attachment usually had childhoods marked with loss and abuse. This style is most maladaptive and is associated with a high risk of later psychopathy (Lyons-Ruth, 1996; Lyons-Ruth, Alpern, & Repacholi, 1993). Seen in 5% of infants in North America.

• Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) - A clinical diagnostic term that differs from insecure attachment classifications. Children with this diagnosis are unattached and are likely to have extreme and long-lasting social-emotional problems. RAD is typically caused by abuse and neglect, or prolonged separation from the attachment figure in the first three years.
• Attachment influences and stability - Many factors affect parenting style and attachment pattern development. These include family structure and stability, poverty and other environmental stresses, and the temperamental characteristics of the infant.
• Research on long-term attachment stability has been mixed but some consistent findings have emerged. For example, secure attachments stay stable in middle-class children but not in children of lower socio-economic status (Belsky, Spritz, & Crnik, 1996). This difference is thought to be attributable to the lack of resources that support sensitive care-giving for parents in poverty (Vondra, 2001). Of the insecure patterns, only the disorganized classification is highly stable long term regardless of socio-economic status (Barnett, Gzniban, & Ciccheti, 1999).
• Multiple Attachments - Bowlby recognized that infants can be attached to more than one person. Secondary attachments form between infants and their other parent (usually the father), siblings, and caregivers. Research into the effect that childcare has on attachment has identified risk factors. Studies found that children are at a slightly higher risk for insecure attachment when they attend childcare for long hours, care is low quality, or mothers are highly stressed combining work and family (Belsky, 1992, 2001).
• Cultural Variations in Attachment - The Strange Situation has been used worldwide to measure attachment since babies everywhere have the same basic social-emotional needs. A summary of 32 international studies found that two-thirds of all children are securely attached, the same percentage as found in North America (Van IJzendoorn & Sagi-Schwartz, 2008).
• Though all infants have the same need for primary attachment, cultural values determine particular care-giving practices. These differences are apparent in the cross-cultural variance of insecure attachment patterns. For example, in Japan most insecurely attached children are ambivalent while German infants are much more likely to be avoidant. This is because these countries have huge differences in what personality traits are deemed desirable: the Japanese value the communal while the Germans prize independence. Some scholars believe that studies from Japan show the cultural limits of Ainsworth’s classification procedure. Since Japanese infants rarely separate from their mothers, the Strange Situation is so very stressful that many children are erroneously identified as insecurely attached (Takahashi, 1990).