Alaska Native attachment: a qualitative study with four Athabascan participants

• Main Author: Keller, Lester R.
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Fairbanks; Athabascan; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/6320

Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2003 Attachment between caregiver and child is an affectional, nurturing bond that develops through the provision of sensitive, constantly available, and responsive care for the child. The attachment bond evolves around diverse interactive experiences that encourage the development of cognitive-emotional schemata and the internalization of a cognitive-emotional working model of relationships. Different cultural experiences encourage the development of different cognitive-emotional schemata. Using a semi-structured interview, behavior, values, and the developmental endpoint associated with attachment was collaboratively explored with four Athabascan research participants, and concepts that emerged were compared and contrasted with those articulated by mainstream attachment theory within Western psychology. Attachment domains that emerged from triangulated interview data were (1) caregiver sensitivity, (2) trust development, (3) exploring, and (4) social competence. In mainstream attachment theory, one caregiver is the primary secure base for a child. Athabascan primary caregivers were a component of a larger community-wide secure base that included important secondary caregivers within a large kinship structure. In mainstream attachment theory, Western cultural values guide a social attachment process toward autonomy and self-direction for the individual. Athabascan community encourages values such as sharing of materials and community solidarity; an endpoint to the attachment process is instead social competence.