Deprivation occurs when an attachment bond is formed and then broken. This is often thought to have psychologically damaging affects on infants that have been deprived, particularly those under the age of two as theorised by psychologists such as Bowlby.
Robertson and Robertson argued that the short term effects of deprivation lead to three stages, firstly of protest( the child refusing to separate from the attachment figure), then Despair(where the child would feel abandoned and be distressed) and finally detachment (where the infant would lose the attachment bond and show little emotion to others). Bowlby studied deprivation as well as privation, through his famous case study of 44 thieves he concluded that maternal deprivation led to delinquency, this is often considered when studying criminals as his work revolutionised the way many approach attachment and in particular deprivation. He also argued that repeated separation in an infant leads to an insecure attachment type being formed which has consequences for later development.
Belsky 88 studied the effects of day care on attachment types and deprivation. Through meta-analysis ( using data from a range of studies) he found that out of 464 children, the children who spent less than 20 hours per week in day care had 26% with an insecure attachment type and those spending more than 20 hours per week in day care with 41% having an insecure attachment type. Through his conclusions that day care had negative affects on attachment types, many reduced the amount of hours they had their child in day care for. This changed the way many treated their children, with mothers choosing not to work to spend more time with their children, it became almost a moral panic for parents as they felt responsible for how their children's future relationships turned out. Arguably the result of these attachment types could be due to specific day care centres. Not all day care centres may be damaging, some may provide a more adequate socialisation process for infants than parents themselves. Creps and Vernon-Feagans found that infants starting daycare before the age of six months were more sociable when older. On a personal note, I dont think day care is too damaging, if the infant is happy and is socialising with many other people possitively then surely future relationships can only be successful.
