Maternal Deprivation

Maternal Deprivation

1. The maternal deprivation hypothesis explains what happens when attachments are broken.

   • Bowlby (1951)

2. Short-term separation

   • Bowlby (1969) describes this as the PDD model.
     • Protest - immediate response is crying, screaming and struggling not to be separated. Outward expression of anger.
     • Despair - protest is replaced by a calmer, more apathetic behaviour. Anger is expressed inwardly and the child comforts itself, reject offers of comfort.
     • Detachment - the child begins to warily respond to people. Signs of anger and a rejection of a caregiver on reunion is common.
   • Quinton and Rutter (1976) found that children under 5 who were separated briefly from their caregiver (due to hospitalisation) had more behavioural problems than those who were not separated.
   • Weaknesses
     • Robertson and Robertson (1971) found that providing an alternative attachment at the time of the separation prevented severe psychological damage.
     • A lot of the evidence is correlational but does not show causation. Kagan et al (1978) found no direct causal link between the two.
     • Barrett (1997) argued individual differences are important e.g. attachment type and age

3. Long-term deprivation

   • Caused by death, divorce or imprisonment.
   • Research
     • Rodgers and Pryor (1998) found that children experiencing two or more divorces have the most behavioural problems, suggesting that more broken attachments lead to more negative outcomes.
     • Furstenberg and Kiernan (2001) found that children experiencing divorce had lower social development, emotional wellbeing, academic performance and physical health than children from a first-marriage family
     • Schaffer (1996) found that almost all children are negatively affected by divorce in the short-term.
       • However, Hetherington and Stanley-Hagan (1999) found that only 25% experienced long-term adjustment problems, suggesting that it is more a short-term than long-term issue.
   • Strengths
     • Face validity and supported by research
     • Application to infant care
   • Weaknesses
     • Richards (1987) found that different types of separation (e.g. death vs divorce) lead to different reactions
     • Individual differences

4. Privation

   • When no attachment bond is formed. This is rare and recovery rates vary.
   • Research
     • Freud and Dann (1951) analysed the Bulldog Banks children, 6 children from a Nazi concentration camp aged 3-4. They were hostile to adults at first but devoted to each other. They eventually formed bonds with adults and recovered.
       • It is theorised that the children recovered well due to their attachment to each other.
       • The ability to recover contradicts Bowlby's idea that privation has lasting damage.
     • Curtiss (1977) and Rymer (1993) studied Genie, a girl who was isolated and strapped to a potty seat until she was 13. She could not stand or speak, mostly she spat. She recovered some of her IQ - from 38 to 74 in 6 years.
       • Dependent on retrospective memory e.g. Genie's mother
     • As these studies are often extreme, they are the most ethical as they are taking advantage of natural circumstances.

5. Institutionalisation

   • Research
     • Goldfarb (1943) compared 15 children (6 months - 3 years) raised in isolation to 15 who went from their natural mother to a foster home. At age 3, the isolated children were less developed than the fostered. This continued at 10 and 14.
       • Weakness: not a random sample and the results may have been due to the unstimulating environment not maternal deprivation.
     • Bowlby (1944) compared 44 juvenile thieves with a control of non-thieves who had suffered emotional problems. 32% of the thieves experienced affectionless psychopathy, compared to none of the control group. 86% of them had experienced maternal separation compared to 17% of non-psychopaths.
     • Tizard and Hodges (1978) studied privated children in care and compared the difference between those who were adopted and those who weren't. They found that those who were adopted had strong attachments to their parents but had problems relating to their peers. Similar for non-adopted but they had no attachments.
       • Weakness: the more socially able children may have been more likely to be adopted (causation is not equal to correlation)
   • Romanian Orphan Studies (Rutter et al. (1998))
     • A - whether loving care can overturn the effects of privation.
       • P - Longitudinal study of 111 children (C1: children adopted before 6 months, C2: children adopted from 6 months to 2 years, C3: children adopted after 2 years). Assessed physically and cognitively. British children used as a control.
       • F - 50% were retarded at initial assessment. At 4 years, they had all improved, with C1 doing as well as the control.
       • C - privation can be overcome with loving care
       • E - Only assessed until 4 years old and only some were given in-depth clinical investigations.