Cross-Cultural Patterns of Attachment: A Meta-Analysis of the Strange Situation

Abstract

VAN IJZENDOORN, MARINUs H., and KROONENBERG, PIETER M. Cross-cultural Patterns of Attachment: A Meta-Analysis of the Strange Situation. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1988, 59, 147-156. Crosscultural research using Ainsworth's Strange Situation tends to rely on incomplete information and to concentrate on individual rather than aggregated samples. In this study, a wider perspective is taken by examining almost 2,000 Strange Situation classifications obtained in 8 different countries. Differences and similarities between distributions in classifications of samples are investigated using correspondence analysis. Aggregation of samples per country and continent allowed for a firmer empirical basis for cross-cultural analysis. Substantial intracultural differences were established; in a number of instances, samples from 1 country resembled those in other countries more than they did each other. The data also suggest a pattern of cross-cultural differences, in which A classifications emerge as relatively more prevalent in Western European countries and C classifications as relatively more frequent in Israel and Japan. Intracultural variation was nearly 1.5 times the crosscultural variation.