Lifespan Development. Tara L. Kuther

infants’ developmental outcomes are influenced more by characteristics of the family, such as parenting, maternal education, and maternal sensitivity, than by the type of child care (Axe, 2007; Dehaan, 2006). Center-based care did not predispose infants to forming insecure attachments (Belsky, 2005; Harrison & Ungerer, 2002). Some research suggests that center-based care is associated with more disobedience and aggression but is accompanied by greater sociability (Jacob, 2009). Other work suggests that behavior problems may be more common in low-quality care but do not appear in high-quality care (Gialamas, Mittinty, Sawyer, Zubrick, & Lynch, 2014; Huston, Bobbitt, & Bentley, 2015).

      Quality of child care matters. Infants and young children exposed to poor-quality child care score lower on measures of cognitive and social competence, regardless of demographic variables such as parental education and socioeconomic status (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005). In contrast, high-quality child care that includes specific efforts to stimulate children is associated with gains in cognitive and language development over the first 3 years of life and can even compensate for lower-quality and chaotic home environments (Berry et al., 2016; Gialamas et al., 2014; Mortensen & Barnett, 2015; Watamura, Phillips, Morrissey, McCartney, & Bub, 2011).

      Child care quality has long-term effects as well. A recent study of Dutch infants showed that high-quality care, defined as providing high levels of emotional and behavioral support, predicted children’s social competence a year later; specifically, children who spent at least 3.5 days a week in care showed lower levels of behavioral problems (Broekhuizen, van Aken, Dubas, & Leseman, 2018). Longitudinal research in Sweden showed that older children and adolescents who had received high-quality care as infants and toddlers scored higher on measures of cognitive, emotional, and social competence later in childhood (Andersson, 1989; Broberg, Wessels, Lamb, & Hwang, 1997). In addition, a longitudinal analysis of over 1,200 children from the NICHD study revealed that the quality of care predicted academic grades and behavioral adjustment at the end of high school, at age 15 and 18, as well as admission to more selective colleges (Vandell, Belsky, Burchinal, Steinberg, & Vandergrift, 2010; Vandell, Burchinal, & Pierce, 2016).

      The challenge is that high-quality child care is expensive. In 2016, the annual cost of center-based care in the United States ranged from about $6,000 in Arkansas to $16,000 in Washington, D.C. (Schulte & Durana, 2016). In some countries, such as Sweden, Norway, and Finland, child care is heavily subsidized by the government (Gothe-Snape, 2017). In the United States, however, it remains a private responsibility. The few public subsidies for child care available in the United States are tied to economic need and are mainly targeted at low-income families who receive other forms of public assistance.

      What Do You Think?

      1 Consider your own experience with child care, either as a child or parent. Can you identify examples of high-quality care? Can you identify ways to improve the quality of care?

      2 Assume that you are a parent seeking child care for your own child or that you were providing advice to a parent. What are indicators of quality care? What would you look for?

      Cultural Variations in Attachment Classifications

      Attachment occurs in all cultures, but whether the Strange Situation is applicable across cultural contexts is a matter of debate. Research has shown that infants in many countries, including Germany, Holland, Japan, and the United States, approach the Strange Situation in similar ways (Sagi, Van IJzendoorn, & Koren-Karie, 1991). In addition, the patterns of attachment identified by Ainsworth occur in a wide variety of cultures in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East (Bornstein et al., 2013; Cassibba, Sette, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & IJzendoorn, 2013; Huang, Lewin, Mitchell, & Zhang, 2012; Jin, Jacobvitz, Hazen, & Jung, 2012; Thompson, 2013).

      Nevertheless, there are differences. For example, insecure-avoidant attachments are more common in Western European countries, and insecure-resistant attachments are more prevalent in Japan and Israel (Van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg, 1988). This pattern may result from the fact that Western cultures tend to emphasize individuality and independence, whereas Eastern cultures are more likely to emphasize the importance of relationships and connections with others. Individualist and collectivist cultural perspectives interpret children’s development in different ways; Western parents might interpret insecure-resistant behavior as clingy, whereas Asian parents might interpret it as successful bonding (Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2018).

      Dogon infants from Mali, West Africa, show rates of secure attachment that are similar to those of Western infants, but the avoidant attachment style is not observed in samples of Dogon infants because infants are in constant proximity to mothers who respond to infant distress promptly and feed infants on demand.

      Danita Delimont / Alamy Stock Photo

      Many Japanese and Israeli infants become highly distressed during the Strange Situation and show high rates of insecure resistance. Resistance in Japanese samples of infants can be attributed to cultural childrearing practices that foster mother–infant closeness and physical intimacy that leave infants unprepared for the separation episodes; the Strange Situation may be so stressful for them that they resist comforting (Takahashi, 1990). In other words, the Strange Situation may not accurately measure the attachment of these infants. Similarly, infants who are raised in small, close-knit Israeli kibbutz communities do not encounter strangers in their day-to-day lives, so the introduction of a stranger in the Strange Situation procedure can be overly challenging for them. At the same time, kibbutz-reared infants spend much of their time with their peers and caregivers and see their parents infrequently and therefore may prefer to be comforted by people other than their parents (Sagi et al., 1985).

      Dogon infants from Mali, West Africa, show rates of secure attachment that are similar to those of Western infants, but the avoidant attachment style is not observed in samples of Dogon infants (McMahan True, Pisani, & Oumar, 2001). Dogon infant care practices diminish the likelihood of avoidant attachment because the infant is in constant proximity to the mother. Infant distress is promptly answered with feeding and infants feed on demand, so mothers cannot behave in ways that would foster avoidant attachment.

      As shown in Figure 6.2, although secure attachment is most common, the prevalence of other attachment styles varies internationally. The behaviors that characterize sensitive caregiving vary with culturally specific socialization goals, values, and beliefs of the parents, family, and community (Mesman, van IJzendoorn, & Sagi-Schwartz, 2016). For example, Puerto Rican mothers often use more physical control in interactions with infants, such as picking up crawling infants and placing them in desired locations, over the first year of life than do European American mothers. They actively structure interactions in ways consistent with long-term socialization goals oriented toward calm, attentive, and obedient children. Typically, attachment theory conceptualizes this type of control as insensitive, yet physical control is associated with secure attachment status at 12 months in Puerto Rican infants (but not White non-Hispanic infants) (Carlson & Harwood, 2003; Harwood, Scholmerich, Schulze, & Gonzalez, 1999). Similarly, German mothers operate according to the shared cultural belief that infants should become independent at an early age and should learn that they cannot rely on the mother’s comfort at all times. German mothers may seem unresponsive to their children’s crying, yet they are demonstrating sensitive childrearing within their context (Grossmann, Spangler, Suess, & Unzner, 1985). In other words, the behaviors that reflect sensitive caregiving vary with culture because they are adaptations to different circumstances (Rothbaum et al., 2000).

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      Figure 6.2 Cross-Cultural Variations in Attachment

      Source: Adapted from Van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg, 1988.

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