Early social development in institutionally reared Greek infants: attachment and peer interaction.

Abstract

Normal social development is believed to take place in widely varying ethnic and socioeconomic settings that include most possible permutations of nuclear and extended families (e.g., Whiting & Child, 1953). Several important studies of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s (e.g., Goldfarb, 1943; Skodak & Skeels, 1949; Spitz, 1946) concluded, however, that normal personality and cognitive development is adversely affected by rearing in institutional settings. In this chapter we hope to demonstrate that under certain conditions institutionally reared infants can develop normally, in the sense that they are able to form attachments to key caregivers and to distinguish familiar from unfamiliar peers. In addition, these infants are capable of forming bonds with new primary caregivers. The research described here was conducted at the Mitera Babies' Cen-

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• Corfu General Clinic GR

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