Attachment And culture: mother’s perception of attachment related components and beliefs in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to assess and compare the attachment issues including mothers’ perception of desirable and undesirable characteristics, mothers’ attributions to child behavior in attachment situations, and Mothers’ Expectations regarding ‘Maternal Responsiveness’ among Iranian, Iraqi and Afghan mothers. To do so, 30 mothers were selected from each culture and, the parent interview, adopted from Rothbaum, Kakinuma, Nagaoka, and Azuma (2007), was used to assess the issues mentioned above. The interviews were semi-structured ones, and each took about 60 min to complete. Four issues including desirable and undesirable characteristics, mothers’ perceptions of child’s behavior and her response in attachment situations, mothers’ perceptions of child’s behavior in strange situation and expectations regarding maternal responsiveness were selected due to the purpose of the study. The results showed some similarities in describing the desirable and undesirable child between cultures, especially regarding intelligence and academic achievement higher level of similarities were observed. Most of the mothers attributed the child behavior (in attachment situations) to seeking security/interdependence. Some differences were also observed e.g. Iraqi and Afghan mothers pointed to compliance from parents, respect to adults, and politeness more than Iranian mothers. Considering the child's behavior in attachment situations and the response of the mother to them, the findings showed some similarities and some differences

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment
• Afghanistan
• Iraq
• Iran
• culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Parisa Sadat Seyed Mousavi

Parisa Sadat Seyed Mousavi is 37 from Iran, and have B.A. degree in clinical psychology, M. A. degree in psychology and PhDin psychology. she is an assisstant professor of psychology in shahid beheshti university and work on attachment and parent-child relationship.

Mohammad Ali Mazaheri

Mohamad Ali Mazaheri is an professor in psychology and the head of psychology faculty in shahid beheshti university in Iran, he had Phd in psychology from England.

Togha Aslafi

Togha Aslafi is 33 and from Iraq, she has M.A. in psychology from shahid beheshti university.

Fatima khalighi

Fatima khalighi is from Afghanistan and has B. A. in psychology from Alzahra university in Iran.

Mohsen Poorganji

Mohsen Poorganji has B.A. degree in industrial management and have participated in 2 master program of social communication- media management and clinical psychology. he currently is working as research volunteer at Centre for addiction and mental health in Canada, Torento.