Cross-cultural Patlerns of Attachment: A Meta-Analysis of the Strange Situation

VAN IJZENDOORN, MARINUS H , and KROONENBERG, PIETER M Cross-cultural Patterns of Attachment A Meta-Analysts of the Strange Situation CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1988, 59, 147-156 Crosscultural research usmg Amsworth's Strange Situation tends to rely on incomplete Information and to concentrate on individual rather than aggregated samples In this study, a widei perspective is taken by exammmg almost 2,000 Strange Situation classifications obtamed m 8 different countries Differences and similanties between distributions in classifications of samples are mvestigated usmg correspondence analysis Aggregation of samples per country and contment allowed for a firmer empirical basis foi cross-cultural analysis Substantial inhacultural diffeiences weie estabhshed, m a number of mstances, samples from l country resembled those in other countries more than they did each other The data also suggest a pattem of cross-cultuial differences, m which A classifications emerge äs relatively more prevalent m Western European counhies and C classificahons äs relatively more frequent m Israel and Japan Inbacultural vanaüon was nearly l 5 times the crosscultural Variation