Attachment Styles Essay

Mary Main was Ainssowrth student. She therefore introduced another fourth category of attachment styles with her attachment studies with adults. During her longitudinal research project alongside her colleague Goldwyn on middle class children’s attachment styles, they found that about 79% of the time attachment styles remained constant from 18 months to 6 years of age (in Brandell & Ringel, 2007,). However in their observations about 5%) that did not fit into Ainsworth’s classification of attachment styles, which they called ‘disorganized/disoriented attachment’ (Main & Solomon, 1986, 1990). These children were fearful and engaged in repetitive or aggressive behaviors. Their behaviors at reunion were unpredictable. They displayed contradictory behavior patterns such as approaching and then suddenly avoiding or exhibiting misdirected behavior patterns such as crying when the stranger leaves or stereotypical behaviors such as rocking, hair pulling or freezing. The mothers of these children were either depressed or had unresolved grief due to early loss of own parents (Main & Solomon, 1986). In this type of attachment, there is no or very little organized strategy to cope with stress and to form an attachment relationship with the caregiver, because here, the attachment figure is the direct cause of distress or fear. An abusive, abandoned and frightening caregiver is the source of fear and the protector at the same time. The infant shows signs of distress and displays avoidant and inconsistent reactions in the presence of the caregiver (Bakermans-Kranenburg & van IJzendoorn, 2007; Stams et al, 2002).

Another contribution of Main to the attachment literature is a structured interview for adults about the relations with their parents...

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...ice is not evenly spread.
The Kenyan situation is not exceptional in terms of scarcity of data on adoption. According to Williams& Njoka, (2008) the government report stated that the Adopted Children Register does not separate data as to whether adoptions were local or intercountry and reproduces figures provided by the registrar for the period 2000 to September 2008, adding to a total of 1,395 adoptions. Yet again , a recent study found that between 2003 and 2006, 387 local adoptions and 256 intercountry adoptions were completed in the country (Njoki, 2012). However South Africa seem to have some tangible data on adoption trends. South Africa indicates that 14,803 children were adopted between 2004 and 2009. With 13,401 adopted locally and 1,402 internationally, domestic adoptions make up 90% of South African adoptions (Mokomane, Rochat, & Directorate, 2012).