infant mother attachment among dogon people

Question 1

what is aim 1 of the study?

Answer 1

To assess whether infant attachment types are different in a culture that raises infants using natural parenting methods

Question 2

what is aim 2 of the study?

Answer 2

To assess whether attachment security was related to the quality of mother infant communications

Question 3

what is aim 3 of the study?

Answer 3

To assess whether mothers of secure infants respond more sensitively to their infants than the mothers of insecure infants

Question 4

what is the procedure of the study?

Answer 4

• 42 mother and infant pairs were used from rural dogon villages were used as participants with infants ranging from 10 months to 12.5 months at first assessment
• the strange situation testing method was used to assess attachment styles
• The results were compared to those from 4 north american samples with a total of 306 mother-infant pairs

Question 5

what were the % of each type of attachment in the dogon infants?

Answer 5

A= 0%
B=67
C=8%
D=25%

Question 6

what were the % of each type of attachment amongst the North American children?

Answer 6

A=23%
B=55%
C=8%
D=15%

Question 7

What were the findings of the study?

Answer 7

1. many dogon children had their grandmother as a principle carer during the day but attachment classifications were unaffected by the type of primary caregiver because the mothers remained close with the children due to regular breastfeeding
2. Positive correlations were found between maternal sensitivity and infant security ratings and the quality of mother-infant communications and infant security ratings

Question 8

what are the conclusions of the study?

Answer 8

1. children raised by natural child-rearing practices have higher levels of secure attachment and no insecure avoidant attachments
2. natural parented children have greater attachment security and an absence of insecure avoidant

Question 9

what is the evaluation of the study?

Answer 9

1. the higher proportion of secure attachment and no avoidant attachments found among the dogon people is remarkable considering the mortality rate of around 45% of infants before the age of 5
2. the findings are backed up by 2 similar studies
3. the strange situation procedure contains elements unfamiliar to dogon infants like being left with strangers, thereby creating a risk that infants are being wrongly classified