Crying in the strange situation procedure: Comparisons between East-Asian and Western infants

Ainsworth and colleagues, who developed the strange situation procedure (SSP), emphasized the importance of context in attachment research. However, cultural characteristics of infants’ behavior during the SSP have not been explored in detail. This study examined whether East-Asian infants would differ in crying during the SSP from Western infants. If so, we further examined which episodes (e.g., separation and reunion episodes) East-Asian infants would cry differently from Western infants. This study compared three East-Asian samples, one Koran ( n = 76) and two Japanese ( n = 44 and n = 81), with two Western samples, one US ( n = 106) and one Czech ( n = 63). The results consistently revealed that when infants were separated from their mothers for the second time and stayed alone in a strange room, both Korean and Japanese infants scored higher on crying compared with US infants. Subsequently, when a stranger entered the room, all East-Asian infants also scored higher on crying compared with US and Czech infants. Infants did not show different levels of crying in the reunion episodes, with the exception of one sample of Japanese infants that scored higher on crying compared with the Western samples of Czech and US infants during the second reunion episode. The findings suggest cultural differences in infants’ crying during the SSP.