3.5: Long-term deprivation

Question 1

Long-term deprivation involves lengthy or permanent separations from attachment figures, most commonly due to what?

Answer 1

Long-term deprivation involves lengthy or permanent separations from attachment figures, most commonly due to divorce

Question 2

Long-term deprivation involves lengthy or permanent separations from attachment figures, most commonly due to divorce.
Around 40% of marriages in the UK end in divorce.
Within 2 to 3 years of divorce, what?

Answer 2

Within 2 to 3 years of divorce, 50% of divorced parents not living with their children (usually the father) have lost contact with their children

Question 3

Long-term deprivation involves lengthy or permanent separations from attachment figures, most commonly due to divorce.
Around 40% of marriages in the UK end in divorce.
Within 2 to 3 years of divorce, 50% of divorced parents not living with their children (usually the father) have lost contact with their children.
What can long-term deprivation also include?

Answer 3

Long-term deprivation can also include:

1. Death
2. Imprisonment of a parent
3. Adoption by different caregivers

Question 4

Rodgers and Pryor (1998) found that children experiencing 2 or more divorces have the lowest adjustment rates and the most behavioural problems, suggesting that continual broken attachments increase the chances of negative outcomes for children, supporting Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 4

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Question 5

Furstenberg and Kiernan (2001) found that children experiencing divorce score lower than children in first-marriage families on measures of social development, emotional wellbeing, self-concept, academic performance, educational attainment and physical health.
This suggests that divorce has wide-ranging negative effects on children’s development, in line with Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 5

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Question 6

Schaffer (1996) found that nearly all children are negatively affected by divorce in the short term, though Hetherington and Stanley-Hagan (1999) found that only about 25% of children experience long-term adjustment problems, with most children able to adapt.
This suggests that negative outcomes to children’s development are more short-term than long-term, lessening support for Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 6

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Question 7

Evaluation:
Strengths:

1. It seems logical that long-term separation has a greater negative effect upon children’s development than short-term separation and research supports this.
2. Research has allowed psychologists to create strategies to help children cope with divorce.
   Some American states have a legal requirement for divorcing parents to attend an education programme that teaches them to understand and avoid the difficulties associated with disrupted attachments, like providing emotional warmth and support and keeping to consistent rules
3. Bowlby drew on a number of sources of evidence for maternal deprivation, including studies of children orphaned during the Second World War and those growing up in poor quality orphanages, for example Goldfarb.
   Therefore, Bowlby’s theory was based largely on real life cases of maternal deprivation.

Answer 7

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Question 8

Evaluation:
Weaknesses:

1. 44 thieves evaluation.
2. Demo and Acock (1996) found that children vary widely in reactions to divorce, with some children developing better attachments to their parents after divorce.
   This may be due to the removal of the negative environment of marital conflict and also to parents being more attentive and supportive to children after divorcing.
   This suggests that divorce does not necessarily bring negative effects.
3. Richards (1987) found that attachment disruption through divorce leads to resentment and stress, while the death of an attachment figure is more likely to result in depression than delinquency.
   This implies that separation through different causes produces different outcomes.
4. There is counter-evidence from research.
   Not all research has supported Bowlby’s.
   For example, Lewis (1954) partially replicated the 44 thieves study on a larger scale, looking at 500 young people.
   In her sample, a history of early prolonged maternal separation did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships.
   This is a problem for the theory of maternal deprivation, because it suggests that other factors may affect the outcome of early maternal deprivation.
5. Bowlby used the term ‘critical period.’
   However, later research has shown that damage is not inevitable and it may just be a sensitive period instead.
   Some cases of very severe deprivation have had good outcomes provided the child has some social interaction and good aftercare.
   For example, Koluchova (1976) reported the case of twin boys from Czechoslovakia who were isolated from the age of 18 months until they were 7 years old (their stepmother kept them locked in a cupboard).
   Subsequently, they were looked after by 2 loving adults and appeared to recover fully.
   Cases like this show that the period identified by Bowlby may be a ‘sensitive’ one, but it cannot be critical

Answer 8

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