Attachment and culture: Security in the United States and Japan.

Abstract

Attachment theorists maintain that cultural differences are relatively minor, and they focus on universals. Here the authors highlight evidence of cultural variations and note ways in which attachment theory is laden with Western values and meaning. Comparisons of the United States and Japan highlight the cultural relativity of 3 core hypotheses of attachment theory: that caregiver sensitivity leads to secure attachment, that secure attachment leads to later social competence, and that children who are securely attached use the primary caregiver as a secure base for exploring the external world. Attachment theorists use measures of sensitivity, competence, and secure base that are biased toward Western ways of thinking: The measures emphasize the child's autonomy, individuation, and exploration. In Japan, sensitivity, competence, and secure base are viewed very differently, calling into question the universality of fundamental tenets of attachment theory. The authors call for an indigenous approach to the psychology of attachment.

Understanding child sexual behavior problems: A developmental psychopathology framework

“…As noted earlier, culturally-specific principles and expectations for children may both influence and modify children's behavior (Rothbaum et al, 2000). It is unclear the extent to which SBP vary across nations, or across ethnic, racial or cultural groups within nations.…”

“…In addition, contextual factors, such as culture, may also impact the display and reported frequency of sexual behaviors, as culturally-specific values and expectations for children may influence and modify a child's behavior (Rothbaum et al, 2000). The possible role of culture has been examined in three studies, each of which compared rates of reported sexual behavior in European children to American children (Friedrich et al, 2000;Larsson et al, 2000;Schoentjes et al, 1999).…”

Development of Emotion Regulation in Cultural Context

“…For persons with an independent self, attachment security is closely linked with exploration in infancy, and with autonomy later in development (Rothbaum, Weisz, Pott, Miyake, & Morelli, 2000). A defining feature of Western security is trust in new relationships (Rothbaum & Trommsdorff, 2007).…”

A Question of Fit: Cultural and Individual Differences in Interpersonal Justice Perceptions

“…Indeed, in Southern (and South-east) Asia, individuals tend to report higher mean levels of anxious attachment in close relationships compared with Western individuals (Schmitt et al 2004). Furthermore, recent critiques point to the fact that dominant conceptualizations of attachment theory are based on normative, middle-class Western ideals of attachment and 'healthy', or secure, relationships (Rothbaum et al, 2000). However, such an approach ignores the wide variation in relational ideals between cultures (Keller, 2013).…”