Attachment: Maternal Deprivation

Maternal Deprivation

Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation states that deprivation from the primary caregiver during the critical period of 2-3 years (later extended to the sensitive period of up to 5 years), will have harmful effects on a child’s emotional, social, physical and intellectual development. Deprivation breaks the infant-caregiver attachment and is an irreversible process.

Bowlby describes 2 reasons for why the attachment can break:

Separation - Separation describes the absence of a caregiver for shorter periods of time.
Deprivation - Deprivation is a loss of something that is wanted or needed for an extended period of time.

Another cause of developmental problems in infants is privation. Privation is the absence of an attachment figure, and has permanent emotional damage.

The PDD model

Robertson and Bowlby (1952) created the PDD model to demonstrate the short term effects of separation and deprivation.

Protest – intense and panicked

Despair – loss of hope/apathetic

Detachment – less distressed/more anger

They found that most infants who had experienced separation or deprivation displayed these behaviours, but that most children could re-establish attachments to caregiver overtime.

Supporting Studies

Goldfarb (1947) investigated the development of children in care, comparing those who had been in care for 3 years with those who were there for shorter periods. Infants who spent 3 years there, had a lower IQ, were socially immature and had increased aggression.

Bowlby (1944) interviewed 44 adolescents who were completing a protection programme in London due to stealing and 44 children as a control group. He also interviewed their parents to see if they had been subject to separation as a child. He found that 14of the 44 thieves could be described as being affectionless psychopaths, 12 of these had experienced separation. In contrast, only 2 of the control group had experienced long separations.

Silver(1967) said that infants who experience deprivation often developed dwarfism. They were shorter, had larger appetites, were delayed in sexual developments and had sleep problems.

Spitz (1945) visited poor orphanages where children received a lack of warmth and affection and showed that they often suffered anaclitic depression.

Evaluation

:) Goldfarb, Bowlby, Silver and Spitz all conducted studies that support the theory of maternal deprivation.

:( Lewis (1954) replicated 44 thieves on a larger scale and found that early separation didn’t predict criminality.

:( Koluchora (1991) studied Czech twin boys who were found at 7 with little development but were adopted. By 20, they had above average intelligence and relationships.

:) Levy (2003) separated baby rats and found that even for as little as a day, this affected their social development.