The impact of maternal deprivation on the development of infants

The impact of maternal deprivation on the development of infants (e.g. social, emotional, intellectual)

Attachment is a theory advanced in 1951 by English psychiatrist John Bowlby, according to which, an infant has an inborn biological need for close contact with it's mother (or another main carer). (Coleman, A 2009)

According to Kagen et al (1978) attachment is:

“An intense emotional relationship that is specific to two people, that endures over time, and in which prolonged separation from the partner is accompanied by stress and sorrow.

There are three basic types of attachment:

Secure attachment

Anxious/ambivalent attachment

Avoidant attachment

Securely attached children exhibit the following behaviour:

They use the primary caregiver as a secure base from which to explore their environments.

They protest a little when their caregiver leaves but eventually calm down seeming to trust that the adult will return.

Whilst with strangers or other adults, they're friendly but not overly so.

Upon reunion, they go to the primary caregiver and seek a connection.

Anxious/ambivalent children exhibit the following behaviour:

They do not use their caregivers as a secure base to explore from.

They sometimes resist initial contact with the caregivers but staunchly resist any attempt to break it off after it has been established.

They are avoidant or sometimes aggressive in the presence of strangers.

They cry excessively upon separation and are difficult to console.

Avoidant children exhibit the following behaviour:

They seem to need less contact from the caregiver.

They are indifferent when left alone or cry only because they are alone and not because they miss the caregiver.

Upon the return of the caregiver, they either avoid or ignore him/her.

There are several phases in the attachment process. Pre-attachment, which lasts until about 3 months of age. Indiscriminate attachment lasts until about 7 months of age. Discriminate attachment starts at about 7/8 months of age. Multiple attachment starts from about 9 months onwards.

Maternal deprivation can have varying effects on infants. There is long term and short term separation and these can have both long and short term effects.

Short term deprivation (days or weeks rather than months or years) causes distress. This is usually a short term effect. It typically involves three stages:

Protest

Despair

Detachment

One long term effect of short-term separation is separation anxiety.

Separation anxiety can also be associated with long term deprivation. Separation anxiety is defined as the normal fear or apprehension of infants when separated from their mother or other major attachment figure, or when approached by strangers, usually most clearly evident between 6 and 10 months of age or in later life, similar apprehension about separation from familiar physical or social environments.

John Bowlby was a psychoanalyst and believed that mental health and behavioural problems could be attributed to early childhood. Bowlby believed that attachment behaviours are instinctive and will be activated by any conditions that seem to threaten the achievement of proximity, such as separation, insecurity and fear.

Main Points of Bowlby’s Attachment Theory:

A child has an innate (i.e. inborn) need to attach to one main attachment figure (i.e. monotropy).

A child should receive the continuous care of this single most important attachment figure for approximately the first two years of life.

The long term consequences of maternal deprivation might include the following:

• delinquency,

• reduced intelligence,

• increased aggression,

• depression,

• affectionless psychopathy

The child’s attachment relationship with their primary caregiver leads to the development of an internal working model.

A study conducted by Bowlby concluded that children who are securely attached are “likely to possess a representational model of attachment figure(s) as being available, responsive and helpful and a complementary model of himself as at least a potentially loveable and valuable person”. Bowlby believed that children need a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with a single mother figure (monotropy) in the first 2.5 years (critical period). If the mother – child bond is disrupted in this time (and up to 5 years to a lesser degree), without adequate substitute care, a child could suffer serious long-term and irreversible damage to their emotional, social, cognitive and even physical development. 

According to Bowlby, “prolonged deprivation of a young child of maternal care may have grave and far-reaching effects on his character…similar in form…to deprivation of vitamins in infancy”. Bowlby believed that the mother was to be the central caregiver providing continuous care. 

Oppositions to this claim include:

Mothers are the exclusive carers in only a very small percentage of human societies; often there are a number of people involved in the care of children, such as relations and friends (Weisner & Gallimore, 1977).

Van Ijzendoorn & Tavecchio (1987) argue that a stable network of adults can provide adequate care and that this care may even have advantages over a system where a mother has to meet all a child’s needs.

There is evidence that children develop better with a mother who is happy in her work, than a mother who is frustrated by staying at home (Schaffer, 1990).

One of the main critics of Bowlby's attachment theory is J R Harris. Harris believes that “Parents do not shape their children's personality or character. A child's peers have more influence on them than their parents”.

An experiment on attachment conducted in 1970 by Ainsworth and Bell attempted to explain the individual differences and the quality of infants' attachment to their caregivers by using the Strange Situation. The experiment was conducted with in a lab setting. The children were observed in four different situations. First, it was observed if a child would explore their environment in the presence of their caregiver. Next, the caregiver left the room to observe the infant's signs of distress (separation anxiety). Third, their response to strangers was observed and finally the infants' reaction to the return of the caregiver was observed. There were remarkable differences found among the infants' behaviour. 70% of the infants showed a secure attachment. 10% displayed resistant behaviour and 20% showed avoidant attachment. (Cardwell 2008).

Although the experiment lacked mundane realism, a child will often encounter many strangers and strange environments. The children used in this experiment were all middle class from the US which shows a lack of external validity. There is an ethical issue within this experiment, causing the infants' distress would have an effect on the caregiver and would result in demand characteristics being displayed.

In 1975, Edward Tronick and colleagues first presented the "still face experiment" to colleagues at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. He described a phenomenon in which an infant, after three minutes of "interaction" with a non-responsive expressionless mother, "rapidly sobers and grows wary. He makes repeated attempts to get the interaction into its usual reciprocal pattern. When these attempts fail, the infant withdraws [and] orients his face and body away from his mother with a withdrawn, hopeless facial expression." It remains one of the most replicated findings in developmental psychology. 

The “still face experiment” became a standard method for testing hypotheses about person perception, communication differences as a result of gender or cultural differences, individual differences in attachment style, and the effects of maternal depression on infants. This experiment

highlights the importance of social connection to babies and how much it affects them when the relationship of a caregiver or parent is broken.

One ethical issue related to this experiment is the possibility of psychological damage to the child. This experiment lacks mundane realism as it is unlikely that a child would be in this kind of situation with an adult.

It is clear to see that a bond with a primary caregiver is necessary to the development of a child. However, the experiments conclude that the primary caregiver is not necessarily the child's mother. Being deprived of that bond can lead to all sorts of psychological issues and the child will grow to be a troubled teen and adult.