Editing Attachment theory (section)

=== Cultural differences ===
In Western culture child-rearing, there is a focus on single attachment to primarily the mother. This dyadic model is not the only strategy of attachment producing a secure and emotionally adept child. Having a single, dependably responsive and sensitive caregiver (namely the mother) does not guarantee the ultimate success of the child. Results from Israeli, Dutch and east African studies show children with multiple caregivers grow up not only feeling secure, but developed "more enhanced capacities to view the world from multiple perspectives."<ref name=":12">{{cite book |title=Mothers and Others-The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding |url=https://archive.org/details/mothersothersevo0000hrdy |last=Hrdy |first=Sarah Blaffer |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-674-03299-6 |location=United States of America |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mothersothersevo0000hrdy/page/130 130], 131, 132}}</ref> This evidence can be more readily found in hunter-gatherer communities, like those that exist in rural Tanzania.<ref>{{Citation|last1=Crittenden|first1=Alyssa N.|title=Cooperative Child Care among the Hadza: Situating Multiple Attachment in Evolutionary Context|date=2013|work=Attachment Reconsidered|pages=67–83|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|isbn=978-1-137-38674-8|last2=Marlowe|first2=Frank W.|doi=10.1057/9781137386724_3}}</ref>

In hunter-gatherer communities, in the past and present, mothers are the primary caregivers, but share the maternal responsibility of ensuring the child's survival with a variety of different [[Allomothering|allomothers]]. So while the mother is important, she is not the only opportunity for relational attachment a child can make. Several group members (with or without blood relation) contribute to the task of bringing up a child, sharing the parenting role and therefore can be sources of multiple attachment. There is evidence of this communal parenting throughout history that "would have significant implications for the evolution of multiple attachment."<ref>{{cite book |title=Attachment Reconsidered: Cultural Perspectives on a Western Theory |last1=Quinn |first1=Naomi |last2=Mageo |first2=Jeannette Marie |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-137-38672-4 |location=United States of America |pages=73, 74}}</ref>

In "non-metropolis" India {{clarify span|text=(where "dual income nuclear families" are more the norm and dyadic mother relationship is)|
explain=dyadic mother relationship is... what? is "and" supposed to be "than"?|date=July 2023}}, where a family normally consists of 3 generations (and sometimes 4: great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and child or children), the child or children would have four to six caregivers from whom to select their "attachment figure". A child's "uncles and aunts" (parents' siblings and their spouses) also contribute to the child's psycho-social enrichment.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Parens |first=Henri |date=1995 |title=Parenting for Emotional Growth: Lines of Development |url=https://jdc.jefferson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1003&context=parentingemotionalgrowth |access-date=March 14, 2024 |website=Thomas Jefferson University-Jefferson Digital Commons}}</ref>

Although it has been debated for years, and there are differences across cultures, research has shown that the three basic aspects of attachment theory are, to some degree, universal.<ref name="IJzendoorn MH 2008. pp. 880">{{cite book | vauthors = Van Ijzendoorn MH, Sagi-Schwartz A | chapter = Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: Universal and contextual dimensions. | veditors = Cassidy J, Shaver PR | title = Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications. | url = https://archive.org/details/handbookofattach0000unse_n9k8 | edition = 2nd | location = New York, NY | publisher = Guilford Press | date = 2008 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/handbookofattach0000unse_n9k8/page/880 880]–905 }}</ref> Studies in Israel and Japan resulted in findings which diverge from a number of studies completed in Western Europe and the United States.  The prevailing hypotheses are: 1) that secure attachment is the most desirable state, and the most prevalent; 2) maternal sensitivity influences infant attachment patterns; and 3) specific infant attachments predict later social and cognitive competence.<ref name="IJzendoorn MH 2008. pp. 880" />