The effects of disruption

The effects of disruption

1. Short term effects

   • Protest
     • The child screams and protest angrily
     • Attempts to cling to the parent
     • Struggle to escape from others who pick them up
   • Despair
     • After a while the child becomes calmer but a little upset
     • Child refuses others' attempt to comfort them
     • Appear withdrawn and uninterested in anything
   • Detachment
     • Begin to engage with others- may be wary
     • Reject caregiver when they return and shows signs of anger
   • Research into seperation - Robertson and Robertson
     • The Robertson's filmed various children under the age of 3 during short seperations
     • One boy, John spent 9 days in a residential nursery whilst his mother had gone to hospital to have another baby
       • John demonstrated Protest when it was day 2 because John tried to get the nurse ti mother him; but pushed away other children.
       • John demonstrated despair when it was days 3-5 to days 7-8 because he was more likely to play in a quiet corner or crawl under a table to cry alone. On days 7-8 when nurse tried to cheer him up; he hardly responded.
       • John demonstrated detachment when it was day 9 as his mother arrived to take him home he started throwing himself around and crying loudly. When he eventually looked at his mother it was a "long hard look"
       • How to improve on the possible effects of daycare
         • Visit the mother in hospital
         • Bring things from home
         • Looked after by same carer each day
         • Ate well whilst staying in care

2. Long term effects

   • Extreme Clingliness
     • "Cling" when parents try to leave
       • Even in situations such as nursery where they have been left before
         • Or when a babysitter is due to arrive
   • Detachment
     • Refused to be hugged or cuddled
     • Behaviour designed to protect them from being hurt again
   • Demanding
     • More demanding of their attachment figure

3. Factors affecting response to seperation

   • Age of child
     • Response is strongest between 12-18 months
     • Schaffer and Callender studied behaviour of 76 behaviours between 3 and 51 weeks who were admitted to a children's hospital
       • Children younger than 7 months showed minimal upset and little clinging
       • After this age the strength of the child's response increased with the most severe being between 12-18 months
       • This may be related to development of child's language skills and ability to understand that the attachment figure will return
   • Type of attachment
     • Securely attached - cope better with short separation than an insecure ambivalent attachment type
     • Could be due to their belief that mother figure will return
   • Sex of the child
     • Boys seem to respond more strongly to separation than girls although there are wide differences within as well as between sexes
   • Whom the child is left with and the quality of care they recieve
     • Children older than 10 months from multiple attachments
     • If child left with attachment figure such as grandparent- effects are minimal
   • Experience of previous seperations
     • Children who are accustomed to brief separations such as being left at playgroup or with grandparents are likely to respond less strongly than child who is rarely separated from their attachment figure

4. Strengths

   • Practical applications can arise from the research into disruption of attachment
     • E.g in order to reduce the effects of disrupting an attachment it could be advised that the child is visited by their mother regularly
     • The benefits of this are that it's not such a prolonged separation therefore separation will not have a long lasting effect
   • Methodology that the investigating research used
     • Carried out natural investigations- E.g. it took advantage of an event that would have already happened. She made sure no manipulation of variables ocurred- she tried to be as unobtrusive as possible.
       • Therefore there is going to be no demand characteristics as John doesn't understand he is being watched therefore wont change his behaviour

5. Weaknesses

   • Methodological Issues
     • It would be very hard to replicate in contemporary society to check for reliability because people nowadays aren't as attached to their mothers- they have multiple attachments. So you cant check for reliability because you can't repeat the study effectively
   • Potential confounding variable that can affect how a child responds to a disruption in attachment
     • E.g. The age of the child is a factor because the older the child the more understandable they are. John was only 17 months old therefore he may not have been able to understand his mother would return
     • E.g. The children who did respond better to separation in The Robertson's films were those who were older and could hold a memory of their mother. This is an issue as we can't conclude every child will react in this way so we can't generalise. John was onlu 17 months who may have only had one attachment with his mother