A CROSS-CULTURAL-STUDY OF PRESCHOOLERS ATTACHMENT - SECURITY AND SENSITIVITY IN JAPANESE AND US DYADS

Japanese and US 4- and 5-year-old children and their mothers were stud ied in situations designed to examine attachment-related behaviours, f eelings, and representations. Separation and reunion behaviours, conve rsations about separation, and child-rearing patterns were examined in relation to culture, gender, and internalising symptoms. Japanese and US dyads did not differ in overall levels of security and sensitivity in separation and reunion behaviours, based on a rating system develo ped by Crowell, Feldman, and Ginsberg, (1988). However, Japanese child ren showed more amae (desire for bodily closeness) behaviour than US c hildren. Amae was positively correlated with internalising symptoms fo r US children but not for Japanese children. Cultural differences in d yads' discussions of separation issues and in maternal child-rearing p atterns also were identified.