Example for Grant Proposal

Intergenerational Attachment Patterns of American Indians
Karin Lutter

Description of Research:

             Attachment theory has profoundly improved our ability to accurately explain and understand such diverse human experiences as surviving the Holocaust (Sagi-Schwartz, Koren-Karie, & Joels, 2003), being a Seminole juvenile delinquent (Robbins, 1984), raising children in West Bengal (Graves, 1978), and feeling jealous in Hungary, Finland, and Italy (Vincze & Dull, 1998).  The impressive flexibility of attachment theory is due in part to the unique and instructive variations discovered through cross-cultural comparisons.  This cross-cultural research has helped to further develop the depth and versatility of attachment theory so that it incorporates the entire spectrum of human behavior, and can therefore be applied to a similarly wide variety of psychological concerns.  I propose to expand this cross-cultural attachment research to further include American Indians in order to refine the scope, applicability, and cultural relevance of attachment theory. 

            One of the main ideas in attachment theory is that an individual’s attachment style or status in adulthood is largely determined by his earliest attachment experiences, which hinge on responsive, empathetic relationships with caregivers (Fraley, 2002).  In infancy, attachment is measured using a laboratory procedure known as the Strange Situation, where an infant is observed during a progressive series of separations from and interactions with both his mother and a stranger (Ainsworth & Bell, 1970).  The attachment categories for infants are secure versus insecure, with insecure status further broken down into Fearful-Avoidant, Resistant-Avoidant, Anxious, and Disorganized.  Many studies have supported the stability of attachment across the lifespan, whether it is examined in preschool (Tsujino, 2002), adolescence and young adulthood (Waters, Hamilton, & Weinfield, 2000), or old age (Montague, 2003).  Furthermore, research shows that a mother’s adult attachment classification reliably predicts the classification of her offspring (Gloger-Tippelt, Gomille, Koenig, & Vetter, 2002).  There is additional evidence to support the transmission of attachment style across multiple generations (Benoit & Parker, 2000).  

These continuities are important because attachment status has also been significantly linked with a broad range of developmental outcomes, such as sleep disorders in infancy (McNamara, Belsky, & Fearon, 2003) levels of aggression in childhood (Gauthier, 2003), disordered eating in adolescence, (Pakier , 2003), teenage perceptions of romantic relationships (Ardone, 2002), judgements of elder abuse in young adulthood (Malley-Morrison, You, & Mills, 2000), and intimacy in friendships (You & Malley-Morrison, 2000).  The combination of evidence-based continuity across both generations and lifespan indicates that attachment theory systematically describes a definitive aspect of human development     

There is a surprising dearth of psychological research on the attachment determinants of ethnic minorities, but this is even more so the case for American Indians.  Most cross-cultural research focuses on Asian, Latino, and African American  populations, with a handful of American Indian studies done in the lower 48 states (Christensen & Manson, 2001), and on people in Western and Northern Europe.  Despite this relatively small research base, the cultural differences, both nuanced and acute, consistently found by these studies have helped further clarify and advance the utility of attachment theory. 

Since the category of “American Indian” is unfathomably vast, it is necessary to be specific.  My first choice would be to study Alaska Natives, such as the Tlingit and Tsmishian populations in Southeast Alaska.  Alaska Natives provide a particularly interesting attachment case study for many reasons.  First, Alaska’s extreme geographical isolation and physical ruggedness has made it more impervious to outside cultural influences due to the fact that it has always been hard for humans to simply reach Alaska, much less leave a significant mark on its tough and interminable face.  Because of this, many of the natural resources needed for subsistence living (such as salmon, game, and wild plants) are still plentiful and accessible, and this has allowed traditional lifestyles and cultures to persist longer than in the contiguous U.S.  Furthermore, the harshness of this northern environment places a special urgency and importance on successful attachment and lasting, functional interdependence. 

The native cultures that have evolved in response to this intense environment are as spectacular and tenacious as the landscape itself, and in terms of attachment research, equally untouched and unexplored.   Despite these unique variables, Alaska Natives face societal pressures and psychological challenges similar to those of their southern-U.S. counterparts and are therefore a high-risk population.  They are clearly a very worthy source of insight for fine-tuning our understanding of both attachment theory and the American Indian psychological experience.

            If anything should prevent the study of Alaska Natives, my second choice would be to study the Cherokee Indians of North Carolina. 

 Methodology:

 Research Participants:

            Participants will be American Indians, recruited primarily from colleges, universities, churches, cultural organizations, and with the assistance of Dr. Gerald Mohatt, head of the Community Psychology department at University of Alaska, Fairbanks.  Random selection will be employed insofar as the final sample and location allows.

 Materials:

              The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996) or a modified version of it will be used to measure adult attachment.  This method will be accompanied by qualitative interviews and self-report measures to determine demographics and risk factors.

 Procedure:

            Multiple generations of American Indian participant families will be interviewed using adult attachment and demographic measures.  Participants will ideally be female, due to the research-supported primacy of the mother-child relationship in attachment development (Frodi, A., Lamb, Hwang, & Frodi, M., 1983) and also to promote cross-cultural comparisons within the large body of maternal attachment research.  However, in light of the unforeseeable constraints of time and location, both sexes will be interviewed.

            Depending on the particular contacts and resources, the project will either be a detailed and thorough study of a single community, or a more broad-based examination of a variety of communities.  In the latter case, an effort will be made to interview people living a traditional subsistence lifestyle (producing the majority of their own food and materials) as well as people living in modern rural and urban communities in order to explore the influence of subsistence on attachment. 

          Scores on attachment measures will be compared across generations to ascertain significant attachment patterns among American Indians.  Differences in attachment patterns and associated developmental outcomes will be analyzed and compared cross-culturally.        

 Publication:

            I am very interested in sharing the results of this research both locally and nationally.  I would like to participate in the Fall 2004 Symposium of Undergraduate Research as well as attend the 2005 National Conference of Undergraduate Research and/or the Southeast Psychological Association’s annual conference.  Furthermore, I am highly motivated to pursue publication in the UNCA Journal of Undergraduate Research as I plan on applying to psychology Ph.D. programs in the future.   

 Rationale for Budget:

The specific rationale for each item is included in the attached budget.  All expense amounts listed are estimated based on the rates currently available online. 

 Bibliography and References Cited:

 Ainsworth, M. & Bell, S. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Development. 41(1), 49-67.

 Ardone, R. (2002). Qualita delle relazioni sentimentali in adolescenti di famiglie unite e separate. / Quality of romantic relationships in united and separated families in adolescence.  Psicologia-Clinica-dello-Sviluppo. 6(3), 465-490.

 Benoit, D. & Parker, K. (2000). Stability and transmission of attachment across three generations. In D. Muir & A. Slater (Eds.), Infant development: The essential readings.  Essential readings in development psychology (pp. 322-339).  Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

 Christensen, M. & Manson, S. (2001). Adult attachment as a framework for understanding mental health and American Indian families: A study of three family cases.  American Behavioral Scientist.  44(9), 1447-1465.

 Dauenhauer, N. & Dauenhauer, R. (Eds.) (1994) Haa Kusteeyi, Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

 De Laguna, F. (1972) Under Mount Saint Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit (Part 1).  Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

 Fraley, C. (2002). Attachment stability from infancy to adulthood: Meta-analysis and dynamic modeling of developmental mechanisms.  Personality and Social Psychology Review. 6(2), 123-151.

 Frodi, A., Lamb, M., Hwang, C., Frodi, M. (1983). Father-mother infant interaction in traditional and nontraditional Swedish families: A longitudinal study.  Alternative Lifestyles.  5(3), 142-163.

 Gauthier, Y. (2003). Infant mental health as we enter the third millennium: Can we prevent aggression? Infant Mental Health Journal. 24(3), 296-308.

George, C., Kaplan, N., & Main, M. (1996). The Attachment Interview for Adults. Unpublished Manuscript, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley (3rd Edition).

 Gloger-Tippelt, G., Gomille, B., Koenig, L., & Vetter, J. (2002). Attachment representations in 6-year-olds: Related longitudinally to the quality of attachment in infancy and mothers' attachment representations.  Attachment and Human Development. 4(3), 318-339.

 Graves, P. (1978). Infant behavior and maternal attitudes: Early sex differences in West Bengal, India.  Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 9(1), 45-60.

 Malley-Morrison, K., You, H., Mills, R. (2000). Young adult attachment styles and perceptions of elder abuse: A cross-cultural study.  Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology. 15(3), 163-184

 McNamara, P., Belsky, J., & Fearon, P. (2003). Infant sleep disorders and attachment: Sleep problems in infants with insecure-resistant versus insecure-avoidant attachments to mother.  Sleep and Hypnosis. 5(1), 17-26.

 Montague, D., Magai, C., Consedine, N., & Gillespie, M. (2003). Attachment in African American and European American older adults: The roles of early life socialization and religiosity. Attachment and Human Development. 5(2), 188-214.

 Pakier, T. (2003). The relationship between parental bonding and disordered eating patterns in a non-clinical adolescent population. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering. 64(3-B), 1479.

 Robbins, S. (1984) Anglo concepts and Indian reality: A study of juvenile delinquency.  Social Casework. 65(4), 235-241. 

Sagi-Schwartz, A., Koren-Karie, N., & Joels, T. (2003) Failed mourning in the Adult Attachment Interview: The case of Holocaust child survivors.  Attachment and Human Development. 5(4), 398-408.

Tsujino, J., Oyama-Higa, M., & Inuihara, T. (2002) Specificity of a mother's attachment to her child using the attachment inventory and factors related to attachment: Longitudinal research from prenatal to age three. Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health. 17(1), 63-84.

United States Department of Agriculture: Forest Service, Alaska Region. (1984) The Subsistence Lifeway of the Tlingit People. Juneau, AK: Author.

 Vincze, A. & Dull, A. (1998) A cross-cultural study of sexual jealousy.  Institute for Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. 18(1), 3-33.

  Waters, E., Hamilton, C., Weinfield, N. (2000)  The stability of attachment security from infancy to adolescence and early adulthood: General introduction. Child Development. 71(3): 678-683.

 Waters, E., Merrick, S., Treboux, D., Crowell, J., & Albersheim, L. (2000) Attachment security in infancy and early adulthood: A twenty-year longitudinal study. Child Development. 71(3): 684-689.

 You, H., & Malley-Morrison, K. (2000) Young adult attachment styles and intimate relationships with close friends: A cross-cultural study of Koreans and Caucasian Americans. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 31(4): 528-534.

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