Bowlby Theory of Maternal Deprivation

Maternal Deprivation Definition

Attachment is a deep emotional bond formed between an infant and their primary caregiver over time. But what happens when the child is deprived of that bond? Bowlby’s idea of maternal deprivation provides an answer.

John Bowlby proposed the maternal deprivation theory in 1951. The theory states that separation from the mother in early childhood can harm the child’s psychological and social development.

Bowlby assumes that continuous care from the mother (or another primary caregiver) is essential for normal psychological development, and therefore separation from this figure harms development.

The maternal deprivation hypothesis explains Bowlby’s theory of what can happen when the bond between mother and child is absent or disrupted.

He hypothesises that attachment disruption leads to severe, permanent damage to the child’s emotional, social, and intellectual development.

Describe Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

There are three types of disruption to attachment: short-term separation, long-term deprivation, and privation.

Fig. 1 - Crying may be a sign of maternal deprivation.

Bowlby Theory of Maternal Deprivation: Separation versus Deprivation

Separation and deprivation are two types of disruption to the attachment bond. It is essential to distinguish between separation and deprivation because, in most cases, short-term separation is harmless in the long term, while deprivation can have lasting adverse effects. Long-term separation can also have severe consequences for the child.

Bowlby and Robertson (1952) found that children show signs of distress when they experience a short-term separation from their primary attachment figure. They divided this response into different stages of despair and described them using the PDD model:

1. Protest– the child displays angry protest behaviours such as crying, screaming, and clinging to the parent to prevent leaving.
2. Despair – the child appears calm on the surface when he stops protesting but instead withdraws and is upset. It usually rejects attempts by others to comfort them.
3. Detachment– the child begins to engage with others and rejects the caregiver when they return, exhibiting angry behaviour.

Maternal Deprivation Effects on Development

Bowlby believed that children deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period suffer delayed intellectual development characterised by abnormally low IQ. Adoption studies demonstrated this finding as well.

A child who has experienced maternal deprivation will likely suffer from stunted emotional development. A child who struggles with emotional development may suffer from symptoms such as alexithymia (the inability to identify and describe one’s feelings).

Bowlby noted that maternally deprived children might develop an inability to feel guilt or empathy for others (affectionless psychopathy).

Effects of Maternal Deprivation: Bowlby’s (1944) 44 Thieves Study

To further investigate maternal deprivation and its impact, Bowlby conducted a study on the relationship between maternal deprivation and affectionless psychopathy.

In this study, his participants were 44 adolescent thieves and 44 control participants of the same age group.

Bowlby examined the children’s early childhood attachments and how these might correlate with affectionless psychopathy and their criminal acts.

A control group of non-criminal but emotionally disturbed adolescents was formed to see how often the children who were not thieves were separated from or deprived of their mothers.

These participants were matched to the ‘thief group’ based on age and IQ, which a psychologist tested at the beginning of the study. The IQ test was also used to measure the emotional attitudes of both groups towards the test.

Effects of Maternal Deprivation: Bowlby’s (1944) 44 Thieves Study: Findings

Bowlby found that 14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths.

• Of these 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers.
• Of the thieves who were not diagnosed as affectionless psychopaths, only 3 of the remaining 30 had experienced a maternal separation in childhood.
• In the control group, only 2 of 44 had experienced prolonged separation.

Criticism of Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

The evidence in Bowlby’s study is retrospective clinical interviews. There may be a strong experimenter bias since Bowlby himself conducted the interviews and probably had a vested interest in proving the accuracy of his theory. This bias affects the validity of the study.

The links Bowlby made in this study are also correlational rather than causational, i.e., although it shows a link between maternal deprivation and affectionless psychopathy, it does not indicate that maternal deprivation causes affectionless psychopathy.

Rutter (1972) added that other factors, such as family conflict or socioeconomic status, might play a role, which Bowlby did not consider.

Fig. 2 - Bowlby tried to show how maternal deprivation may contribute to psychopathy.

Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation Evaluation

Goldfarb (1947) found that children who had spent more than three years in foster care had lower IQs and showed more social immaturity and aggression than children who had spent less than three years in the system.

Silver (1967) claimed that maternal deprivation might play a role in developing dwarfism in children. This study found that children who had experienced deprivation were often shorter than their peers, had sleep problems, had larger appetites, and had delays in sexual development.

Spitz (1945) found that children in low-budget orphanages lacked emotional warmth and attention. This led to anaclitic depression, a form of depression characterised by strong negative feelings toward oneself and fears of abandonment and loneliness.

Hodges and Tizard (1989) studied young foster care children aged four months to 16 years. The children were well cared for in their institutions, but attachments were discouraged. It was found that these children had problems forming relationships outside the home.

Freud and Dann (1951) studied six German Jewish orphans separated from their parents during the Holocaust. They were placed in a concentration camp between six months and one year old. The other inmates cared for them but did not develop attachments and had no toys to play with.