Influence of early attachment on later
Romanian orphan studies
Disinhibited attachment: child equally friendly r/ships
to familiar adults and strangers Internal working model: created by monotropic
Rutter: (2011) English and Romanian adoption attachment, template for all future r/ships
study Childhood friendships: look at early attachment
- Natural experiment style to mum and then how they behave with
- Either adopted before 6months, before friends when older
2yrs or after 2yrs - Myron-Wilson and smith
- Control group (52 UK adopted children o Type C = bullies
- Physical, cognitive, emotional o Type A = victims
development looked at 4,6,11,15yrs o Type B = good quality friends
(longitudinal study) Parenting: bailey
Results: - 99 mothers asked about childhood
- IQ - Attachment styles as babies predicted
o 6 months – 102 parenting style when they were mums
o 2yrs – 86
o +2yrs – 77 P – contradictory evidence
- Disinhibited attachment after 6 months E – Zimmerman, mixed evidence, no r/ship
common, rare before 6 months found between attachment to parents and then
future adolescence
P – natural experiment E – the internal working model not reliable
E – children could have been impaired at birth – L – cannot be certain it has predictive value
maybe why they weren’t chosen for adoption
until after 2yrs P – issues with the way data in this is collected
E – could be this natural difference causing low E – retrospective data used, hazen and shaver
IQ, not adopted later asked about past, memory issues – can we
L – lowers validity accurately recall our childhood attachment
styles
P – practical application E – if the attachment style isn’t remembered
E – improvements in institutions, key workers properly, how do we know whether it can
to children ratio 1:3 predict future attachments?
E – research helped to change lives of many L – research unscientific
children
L – real value P – other factors could predict later attachment
type better
P – long term effects not clear E – temperament may be better predictor of
E – adolescence ends at 24, so children with future attachments than quality of attachment
lower IQ could catch up still when older as an infant
E – too soon to say what true effects of E – perhaps personality of the baby predicts
institutionalisation are attachment style shown altering the
L – lacks validity monotropic r/ship and subsequent internal
working model
L – internal working model is not complex
enough as does not consider other factors
Romanian orphan studies
Disinhibited attachment: child equally friendly r/ships
to familiar adults and strangers Internal working model: created by monotropic
Rutter: (2011) English and Romanian adoption attachment, template for all future r/ships
study Childhood friendships: look at early attachment
- Natural experiment style to mum and then how they behave with
- Either adopted before 6months, before friends when older
2yrs or after 2yrs - Myron-Wilson and smith
- Control group (52 UK adopted children o Type C = bullies
- Physical, cognitive, emotional o Type A = victims
development looked at 4,6,11,15yrs o Type B = good quality friends
(longitudinal study) Parenting: bailey
Results: - 99 mothers asked about childhood
- IQ - Attachment styles as babies predicted
o 6 months – 102 parenting style when they were mums
o 2yrs – 86
o +2yrs – 77 P – contradictory evidence
- Disinhibited attachment after 6 months E – Zimmerman, mixed evidence, no r/ship
common, rare before 6 months found between attachment to parents and then
future adolescence
P – natural experiment E – the internal working model not reliable
E – children could have been impaired at birth – L – cannot be certain it has predictive value
maybe why they weren’t chosen for adoption
until after 2yrs P – issues with the way data in this is collected
E – could be this natural difference causing low E – retrospective data used, hazen and shaver
IQ, not adopted later asked about past, memory issues – can we
L – lowers validity accurately recall our childhood attachment
styles
P – practical application E – if the attachment style isn’t remembered
E – improvements in institutions, key workers properly, how do we know whether it can
to children ratio 1:3 predict future attachments?
E – research helped to change lives of many L – research unscientific
children
L – real value P – other factors could predict later attachment
type better
P – long term effects not clear E – temperament may be better predictor of
E – adolescence ends at 24, so children with future attachments than quality of attachment
lower IQ could catch up still when older as an infant
E – too soon to say what true effects of E – perhaps personality of the baby predicts
institutionalisation are attachment style shown altering the
L – lacks validity monotropic r/ship and subsequent internal
working model
L – internal working model is not complex
enough as does not consider other factors
