Personal Choices of Kibbutz Children in

Simulated Situations of Distress and Joy

Mordecai Kaffman
Esther Elizur
Avigail Sivan-Sher

ABSTRACT: Nine hundred and ninety-eight kibbutz children aged 3 to

10 years were asked to indicate their personal choices in response to a
projective test depicting a child in situations of distress and joy. The
children selected their own parents as the most significant choice in all
age groups, irrespective of the communal or family type of sleeping
arrangement. This finding appears to confirm the contention that the
family constitutes a primary emotional center for kibbutz children
despite the fact that parents do not function as providers of material
needs, and that children grow up in communal houses with a
housemother responsible for childcare tasks usually associated with
the mother in the nuclear family model.

INTRODUCTION

The professional literature dealing with the kibbutz (pl.

kibbutzim) has focused primarily on descriptions of the unique
child-rearing and family functioning under conditions very
different from those of nuclear families (Spiro, 1958; Rabin,
1965; Neubauer, 1965, Bettelheim, 1969). The fact that the
kibbutz movement in Israel has already been in existence for 70
years and includes some 250 communes differentiates it from
other, more transient utopian experiments and warrants a
deeper consideration of the outcomes of this particular type of
communal life. In recent years, instead of earlier more casual
observations, a number of more objective studies have been
The authors are affiliated with the Kibbutz Child and Family Clinic, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Reprint requests should be addressed to the senior author at the Kibbutz Child and
Family Clinic, 147 Haifa Road, Tel Aviv, Israel.

International Journal of Family Therapy, Spring 1980 57

O148-838418011300-0057$00.95@1980 HumanSciencesPress
58

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FAMILY THERAPY

carried out focusing on the relationship between parents and

children. The research presented here sought an objective
method for estimating the relative importance of the parents,
siblings, caretakers, and peer group as emotional focal points for
kibbutz-reared children.
To begin, a few facts will suffice to characterize the typical
kibbutz child-rearing model. The commune is responsible for
meeting the overall needs of its members, adults and children
alike. The kibbutz as a unit is concerned with providing everyday
subsistence (food, clothing, shelter), education, culture, health
care, and entertainment. Parents, therefore, do not function
directly as providers of most of their children's material needs.
Children grow up in communal children's houses within a
relatively stable peer group from the first year until the end of
high school. This lends great importance in the daily life of the
children to issues of peer-group coexistence. Moreover, within
these communal houses, a metapelet (pl. metaplot), caretaker
or housemother, is responsible for all the details of the daily
routine, physical care, health, and well-being of the children.
Fulfilling many of the functions usually associated with the
mother in the nuclear family model, the metapelet supervises
the children in such areas as eating, toilet training, social
adjustment, play and creative activities. Although there are
opportunities for parents and children to be together during any
free time available, in general the whole family is together once a
day for some four hours in the afternoon in the time between
finishing work and putting the children to bed. Shabbat, the day
of rest, is less regimented and provides more free time for family
recreation and activities. In most kibbutzim, children return to
their children's houses to sleep while watchmen and an inter-
com station are available to take care of any special needs of the
children, should they arise during the nighttime hours. Early in
the morning, the metapelet with her helpers again take over the
child-rearing tasks. Sleeping in the children's houses is the
prevailing system; but, in about 16% of the kibbutzim, an
alternative system has been implemented in which children
sleep in their parents' rooms and return to the children's houses
only in the morning. According to recent information from the
Kibbutz Central Bureau, an additional 15% of the kibbutzim are
planning to move to this family sleeping arrangement during
1978.
 59

M. KAFFMAN, E. ELIZUR, A. SIVAN-SHER

Researchers from abroad looking for a proper name for this

method of family life and child rearing have used terms such as
"multiple mothering," "intermittent mothering," "polymatric
family," or "collaborative child-rearing" (Bowlby, 1957; Rabin,
1958; Caldwell et al., 1963; Eisenberg and Neubauer, 1965);
none of these designations fully expresses the feelings of the
kibbutz members regarding the cooperative division of tasks
among parents, family, metaplot, and the commune itself. Most
important, however, is not semantics and terminology but a
professional evaluation of the outcome of such a special child-
rearing system. Early publications, based mainly upon "clinical"
impression, raised the anxieties of both parents and educators
in the kibbutz movement by suggesting that children raised in
the kibbutz suffered from various emotional symptoms associ-
ated with insufficient contact between mother and child
(Caplan, 1951; Bowlby, 1957, 1963). Bettelheim (1969), for
one, after spending several weeks on a kibbutz suggested
provocatively that "the kibbutz child's emotional involvement
with his parents is much less intense than that of an average
middle-class American child...The parents rank third in a
hierarchy of importance in which the peer group comes first..."
(p. 107). He attributed this to what he saw as the kibbutz
relegating parent-child relations to a "pleasant but not very
~mportant part" of daily life.
Most researchers disagree with the findings of Caplan,
Bowlby, and Bettelheim (Spiro, 1958; Rabin, 1965; Kaffman,
1972; Gerson, 1974; Ishigaki, 1975; Rabkin, 1976). The most
recent comparative studies have found more similarities than
differences in the attachment behavior of kibbutz-raised and
American young children (Maccoby & Feldman, 1972) and in
the perceptions of parental behavior by Israeli, kibbutz-raised
and non-kibbutz preadolescents (Devereux, Shouval, Bron-
fenbrenner et al., 1974). Still lacking is research exploring the
specific characteristics of the attachment ties in a child-rearing
system involving multiple socializers. To this issue, the present
research is addressed. Specifically, the question explored was
whether, desite the differences in the functional distribution of
family and other child-rearing agents in the kibbutz, the parents
remain the most significant emotional referent for children
raised on a kibbutz. The relative significance of the various
socializing agents (parents, caretakers, and teachers, peers,
60

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FAMILY THERAPY

siblings) as preferred and supportive figures for a group of

kibbutz children (ages 3 to 10) in situations depicted as
distressing (crying) and joyful (smiling) was studied. In addition,
a second and heuristic part of the research explored the causal
factors given by these kibbutz children for the crying or smiling
child to feel the way he does. The following specific hypotheses
were considered:
1. Children will choose parents in situations of both distress and
joy more often than other significant persons (caretaker or
teacher, peers, siblings).
2. Sleeping arrangements, whether with the family or in
communal children's houses, will not affect the choice of
parents as the preferred object.
3. With age, the relative significance of the metapelet will
decrease and the significance of the peer group increase.

METHOD

The Sample
The subjects came from 18 kibbutzim chosen by a stratified
sampling procedure calling for three variables: the type of the
children's sleeping arrangements, the size of the membership of
the kibbutz, and its age. The subjects included all the children
on these 18 kibbutzim between the ages of 3 (past their third
birthday) and the fourth grade (age 9 or 10). All the children
were born on and raised in these kibbutzim. In the analysis of
the personal-choiCe data, children over the age of 9 were
eliminated because there was no parallel age group among the
children with family sleeping arrangements. Therefore, the
sample consisted of a total of 998 children: 918 (469 boys and
449 girls) between the ages of 3 and 9 and 80 (37 boys and 43
girls) children ages 9 or 10.

Conduct of the Research

All data used in the research came from a single individual
interview with each subject and included the presentation of a
projective test examining personal choice in situations of
distress and joy.
 61

M. KAFFMAN, E. ELIZUR, A. SIVAN-SHER

The projective test consisted of two sheets of paper, each of

which depicted a child (boy or girl depending upon the sex of
the subject) in the center of the page. On one sheet, the child
was crying and, on the other, he was smiling broadly. Leading
from the child are paths to significant figures drawn at the
corners. These were the two parents, children (peers) playing in
front of the children's house or school, children (siblings)
playing in front of the parents' home, and two caretakers (one a
teacher, depending on the child's age).
The interviewer (a psychologist) was equipped with a
detailed set of instructions for each child. On these were blanks
for background information (age and sleeping arrangements) as
well as space for the subject's answers to the open-ended
questions. The standardized instructions were as follows:
For the crying child: Here is a crying boy/girl. Something
happened to him. He cries so loudly that he is heard all over the
kibbutz. (The interviewer points out the various figures in the
drawing.) Here is the metapelet (caretaker) and the teacher (or
second metapelet, according to the age of the child). Here is the
mother and the father. Here is the children's house (or kinder-
garten or classroom, according to the age) and the children
outside, and here are the boy's brothers outside the parent's
home. Do you see? The boy/girl cries and everybody wants to
help him. The child can go wherever he feels like. I will give you a
pencil and you will draw a line marking the child's path, where
he is heading and to whom. (For a small child, he can indicate
with a forefinger.) (After the child has marked the path.) What do
you think? Why does the child cry?
For the happy child: Here is a smiling child. Something
pleasant happened to him. He is very happy and he wants to go
and tell someone what has happened to him. (As above, the
interviewer points out the various figures in the corners.) The
boy can go wherever he feels like. I will give you a pencil and you
will draw a line marking the path to whom the child goes in order
to tell about the pleasant thing that happened to him. (After the
child has marked the path.) What do you think? Why is the child
so happy?
In each children's house, all the children of the group were
interviewed. The caretaker told them that a friend of hers would
come and ask them some questions. The children were directed
one by one in a random order into a familiar and comfortable
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FAMILY THERAPY

room within the children's house where they met the "friend."
There, the interviewer presented each subject with the pro-
jective test matched for sex of the subject. The order of the
"crying" and "happy" child was randomized, as was the order of
presenting the significant figures depicted on the sheets. The
interviewer made certain, insofar as possible, that each
interviewer made certain, insofar as possible, that each subject
clearly understood the task. The average duration of the inter-
view was 5 to 10 minutes. After the interview, the child moved to
another room in the children's house where he would not meet
those subjects yet to be interviewed.

Definitions and Variables

Personal choice was defined as the person(s) selected by
the child in simulated situations of emotional excitement--
representing the poles of positive and negative emotional
excitation for children (Jersild, Markey, & Jersild, 1933, 1947).
It was assumed that the subjects' relations with others would be
most clearly revealed in highly charged emotional situations.
The distress or"crying" situation was seen as connected with the
child's feeling of frustration, inadequacy, anger, agony, fear, or
helplessness and that the personal choice under this condition
would reveal the subject's perceived source of support,
encouragement and protection. The joy or "happy" situation
was seen as connected with the child's positive feelings of self-
esteem, satisfaction, and pleasure and that the personal choice
under this condition would reveal those figures seen as empa-
thetic and interested.
Causal factors for the depicted child to feel the way he does
were obtained from a content analysis of the subjects' answers
tothe open-ended questions about whythe child feels happy or
distressed. The analysis yielded six major categories for the
crying child and seven categories for the smiling child.
Two classification variables were also considered. These
were age (chronological age at the time of testing) and sleeping
arrangements. The latter refers to whether the child sleeps in a
communal children's house or with his parents and siblings.

RESULTS

The data were analyzed by series of one-sample and k-

independent sample chi-square tests (Siegel, 1956). The sex of
 63

M. KAFFMAN, E. ELIZUR, A. SIVAN-SHER

the subjects was found to have no relationship with any of the

variables and thus was not considered in any of the analyses
presented here.
Table 1 depicts the distribution of personal choice by age
group in the situations of distress and joy, respectively. Parents
were named as the preferred persons in all age groups in both
situations: 71% of the sample pointed to one or both parents as
opposed to the other figures in the distress situation (p <.001)
and 57% in the joy condition (p <.001). No one of the other
figures--caretakers or educators, peers, or siblings--was
separately or together a serious contender for this choice.
However, the relative significance of the other figures changes
with age and situations of distress and joy. Although the
differences were not statistically significant, the preference for
parents increased with age in the situation of distress and
decreased with age in situations of joy. In contrast, the approach
to caretakers decreased significantly with age in situations of
both distress (p <.001 ) and joy (p <.05). At school age, there was
significant increase in the choice of peer group, especially in
situations of joy (p <.01) and, although not statistically
significant, there was also an increase in the choice of siblings. If
one combines siblings and peers into a group of"other children"
as opposed to "adult figures," the approach to other children in
situations of joy very clearly increased with age.
The choice of parents as primary referents was uncontested
by the other figures irrespective of the sleeping arrangements of
the subjects. In fact, the relative influence of the sleeping
arrangements was seen only in the joy situation. Table 2 shows
that, in situations of distress, the approach to parents was similar
in both sleeping arrangements; however, in the situation of joy,
communal accommodations were associated with more
approaches to parents than were family-sleeping arrangements
(p <.05). Likewise, in communal accommodations, there are
more approaches to caretaker than in family-sleeping arrange-
ments; this difference was statistically significant only in situ-
ations of joy. In contrast, the family-sleeping arrangement
fostered a greater approach to siblings in both situations of joy
and of distress.
As mentioned earlier, the subjects were asked to give an
appropriate reason for the pleasant (joyful) and the unpleasant
(distressful) emotional state of the child depicted in the
projective test. These answers were recorded and later ana-
lyzed. The analysis yielded the following 13 categories:
TABLE 1. Percentage of Personal Choices in Distress and Joy Situations as Related to Age, N ~ 918 (3-9 years old)
om
4~
Parents vs.
Parents Siblings Caretakers Peers Others all o t h e r choices

Age N Distress Joy Distress Joy Distress Joy Distress Joy Distress Joy Distress Joy
3-5 270 63 63 7 8 21 14 5 14 3 1
5-7 362 69 57 5 11 18 12 6 18 2 2
7-9 286 80 50 4 15 6 6 8 26 1 2
Total 918 71 57 5 11 15 11 6 20 2 2 (X~dFm (Xgd~=
160) d 18i d
Personal
choice (X2df= (X2dF~ (X2df=
by age a 23.4) d 7.4) b 9.6) c

aAnalysis of significance.
bp < .05.
cp < .01.
dp < .001.

TABLE 2. Percentage of Personal Choices in Distress and Joy Situations as Related to Sleeping Arrangements, N = 918 (3-9 years old)

Pare nts Si b li ngs Ca retake rs Peers Oth e rs

Sleeping
arrangement N Distress Joy Distress Joy Distress Joy Distress Joy Distress Joy
Communal 788 71 58 5 10 16 11 6 19 2 2
Family 130 69 49 9 20 13 5 7 26 2 0
Personal choice by (X~,~f~ (X!~-~ (X2 df= df~--g
h-
sleeping . 10.6) c (X2oF
arrangement a

aAnalysis of significance.
bp ~ .05.
Cp < .01.
 65

M. KAFFMAN, E. ELIZUR, A. SIVAN-SHER

For the crying child:

1. Physical aggression--was hurt, was hit (in most cases, the
"aggressor" was another child);
2. Unintentional physical injury--has pain, was wounded;
3. Emotional hurt--was offended, teased, scolded;
4. Lost or lonely--lost his way, left alone, wants to be near his
parents or in the children's home;
5. Social isolation--the children do not want to play with him,
was excluded from an activity.
6. Miscellaneous--"don't know," unclassifiable.
For the smiling child:
1. Holiday--celebration, feast, birthdays;
2. Personal a c h i e v e m e n t - - p r o u d of an accomplishment,
success in overcoming a difficulty;
3. Pleasant experiences--trips, movie, show, circus, zoo;
4. Games with other children--participation in a game, invi-
tation to a game, sport;
5. Experience with parent--companionship with parents,
"mother comes, .... goes to parents' room";
6. Receiving a present--new toy, material objects;
7. Miscellaneous--unclassifiable, "don't know."
These categories were used in the examination of the
relationship between causal factors and both personal choice
and age. Tables 3 and 4 present the data on personal choice (not
including the subjects who chose "others") and the causes given
for distress and joy, respectively. Generally, there were no
distinct relationships between the causes given for the child
crying and the personal choice of this or another figure. In
contrast, there was a general relationship between the causes
given for being happy and the preferred object (p <.001). The
children tended to turn to parents when there was a "personal
achievement." When the cause for joy is a "pleasant experi-
ence" or"receiving a gift," the subjects appeared to turn to their
peers and siblings to share their happiness.
For the analysis of the relation between age and causal
factors, the subjects were divided into two age groups: age 3 to 6
(preschoolers) and age 6 to 10 (school children). In the distress
situation, there was an overall significant relationship between
age and causal factors. Specifically, older children tended to
explain the crying situation by"physical aggression" (X~df= 17.4,
p <.001) and by "social isolation" (X~df = 8.2, p <.01). Younger
children tended to explain the same emotional state as a
TABLE 3. Percentage of Personal Choices in Distress Situation Distributed According to Causes for Distress (975 k i b b u t z children aged 3-10) ~x
Causes for Distress All t o g e t h e r Parents Siblings Caretakers Peers

1. Physical aggression 30 72 6 13 9
2. Bodily injury 26 78 4 13 5
3. Emotional hurt 8 66 1 20 13
4. Lost or lonely 18 75 6 16 3
5. Social isolation 6 77 0 9 14
6. Miscellaneous 12 60 6 24 10

TABLE 4. Distribution of Personal Choices in Percentages as Related to Causes for Joy (984 k i b b u t z children aged 3 - 1 0 years)

Personal choice
Causes for Joy All together Parents Siblings Caretakers Peers by causes a
1. Holiday 25 49 14 10 26
2. Personal a c h i e v e m e n t 24 65 10 13 11 (Xgd f = 19.3) b
3. Pleasant e x p e r i e n c e 14 47 15 6 32 (X~d f 15.7) c
4. Games with children 4.5 42 11 13 36
5. C o m p a n i o n s h i p with parents 12 57 12 23 18
6. Receipt of present 7 41 17 11 31 (X2df = 8.7) d
7. Miscellaneous 13.5 67 8 7 17

aAnalysis of significance.
bp <: .001.
Cp <: .02.
dp < .05.
 67

M. KAFFMAN, E. ELIZUR, A. SIVAN-SHER

consequence of"being lost or lonely" (X21df= 10.9, p <.001). In

the joyful situation, there was also an overall relationship
between age and causal factors (X2~f = 113.6, p <.001). In this
case, older children tended to explain the joy by external factors
such as "holidays" (X2~d~ = 40.8, p <.001) and "receiving
presents" (X21df = 15.9, p <.001), whereas younger children
tended to use "personal achievements" (X2~df= 1 6.7, p <.001)
and "experience with parent" (X2~df= 18.1, p <.001) as causes
for happiness.

DISCUSSION

The hypothesis that children from the kibbutz would

choose parents in situations of both joy and distress more often
than any other significant figure was overwhelmingly confirmed
by the results obtained on the projective test irrespective of the
age of the child or his sleeping arrangements. This was true
despite the fact that the testing was carried out in the morning
hours in the children's houses and it might have been expected
that the children would have been influenced by their
immediate environment of caretaker, educators, and peers.
Interestingly enough, the metaplot themselves, when asked
about the personal choice of the children under their care,
predicted that 50% of the p,reschoolers and 32% of the older
children would choose the metapelet in the situation of distress.
The results indicated a much lower percentage (21% for pre-
schoolers, 6% for older children), thus supporting the con-
tention that the kibbutz child rearing system does not alter the
intensity of emotional ties within the family, despite the
important role of the metapelet as a socializing agent.
Under the situation of distress, the preference for parents
was stronger than under the situation of joy, and little difference
was found to be associated with the reasons for the child's
unhappiness. The second selected object choice, far from the
first one, was the metapelet and/or the teacher in the children's
houses. This second choice decreased with age, reflecting the
fact that the role of the metapelet is less focal in the everyday
activities of older children.
The finding that the children, regardless of age, prefer an
adult rather than a child in time of distress can be viewed as an
expression of the natural dependency and help-seeking needs
of childhood. Actually, more than half of the children explained
68

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FAMILY THERAPY

the crying of the depicted child as related to events in which the

child was done bodily harm (being attacked by another child,
falling, injury or physical pain), a situation which in realityoften
requires the aid of an adult.
The preference for parents under the situation of joy was
also prominent although less marked than in the distress
situation. Again, this finding held true for children from age 3
through 9, but became less salient as age increased. Parents
were preferred more often when the smiling child "wanted to
share some personal achievement." This is a finding that
appears to reflect one of the typical facets of family life in the
kibbutz. The kibbutz family often dedicates the first portion of
the afternoon rendezvous to listening to the children's
recountings of their achievements and activities in the chil-
dren's house. However, for the older children, the preference
tended to move from the parents to siblings and peers. This was
particularly prominent when the reason for joy was related to a
"pleasant experience" or "receipt of a gift." This again reflects a
reality of kibbutz life in which, as the children grow older, the
importance of their peer social attachments becomes more
prominent. It is interesting to note that the metapelet, who
played such a central role in the early socialization of the
children, was relegated to last choice as copartner in situations
of joy among the older children in the sample.
Because no substantial differences have been found
between nuclear and kibbutz families in earlier studies of the
intensity and quality of attachment between parents and
children, it was hypothesized that no differences in the personal
choice of the kibbutz children sleeping in family and communal
accommodations would be found. This hypothesis was con-
firmed; in both sleeping arrangements, parents were clearly
preferred over all other choices. Moreover, in both forms of
accommodation, children chose family members (parents
and/or siblings) in a remarkably similar frequency for both
situations of distress (78% communal, 76% family) and of joy
(77% communal, 75% family). Clinical experience over many
years at the Kibbutz Child and Family Clinic also supports these
findings. Thus, referred families with all kinds of emotional
disorders have shown similar presenting problems, and no
differences in the degree of intrafamily affective involvement
and in the quality of parent-child interaction, whatever the type
of sleeping arrangement may be.
 69

M. KAFFMAN, E. ELIZUR, A. SIVAN-SHER

Only some small differences were found in the personal

choice between children in the two sleeping conditions:
children in family-sleeping arrangements chose their siblings to
a greater extent in both the situations of distress and joy,
whereas children who slept in communal houses chose more
often their parents in the situations of joy. It appears that the
reality of daily life in the family sleeping arrangements with
greater shared experience between siblings and more oppor-
tunities for friction between parents and children, particularly
about bed routines, is reflected in these findings. On the other
hand, the diminished contact with the metapelet in the family
sleeping arrangement appears represented in the decreased
choice of the caretaker by the children who sleep with their
parents.
In comparison with the American samples of children (ages
5 to 12) studied by Jersild, et al (1933), we found some differ-
ences with regard to the causal factors given by the kibbutz
children for distress and happiness. The American children re-
ported much more frequently (73%) than kibbutz children
(56%) situations involving physical aggression or bodily injuryas
"the worst thing that ever happened to them." Perhaps this re-
flects a lesser degree of physical danger on the kibbutz as com-
pared with urban environments. It may also reflect the kibbutz
child's identification with the adult and peer group standards
regarding rejection of violence and undue aggressive behavior.
Interestingly, 18% of the kibbutz children gave "being alone" as
the second most frequent causal factor of unhappiness, while
only 7% of Jersild's sample considered this a primary reason for
distress. Moreover, almost two-thirds of the kibbutz children
giving "being alone" as a reason for distress stipulated that the
child was crying because he wanted to be with his parents, an
addition which lends further support to the findings pointing to
the significant emotional quality of the child-parent attachment
relationships. Emotional injury, insult, sarcasm, and reprimand,
all appeared more frequently as reasons for distress among the
kibbutz children (8%) than among Jersild's sample (4%). This
may well reflect the fact that the greater stability and frequency
of peer-group relationships among kibbutz children contributes
to an increased susceptibility and need on the part of the
individual child to assure his own social acceptance within the
group.
To a smaller extent (39%), the kibbutz children gave as
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FAMILY TH ERAPY

reasons for joy events associated with holidays, festivals, or trips

tO places of recreation, whereas 49% of the American children
studied by Jersild (1949) considered these to be their happiest
experiences. Ten percent of Jersild's sample chose playing with
other children or sports activities as their happiest experience as
compared to 4.5% of the kibbutz sample. Perhaps this reflects
the fact that kibbutz children live and play with other chidren
every day and thus the saliency of this choice was reduced for
them. On the other hand, 24% of the kibbutz children described
personal achievement (special success, self-improvement, in-
tellectual achievement, and physical powers) as reasons for joy
as compared to only 3% of Jersild's sample of American children.
This result may appear anachronistic to the communal way of
life and the cooperative spirit of the kibbutz. In reality, however,
the kibbutz educational practices encourage the achievements
and success of each individual child in creative, social, and
intellectual endeavors apart from the collective tasks. It is
noteworthy to mention that Jersild's sample from nuclear
families and the children from the Israeli commune described
happiness as an experience with parents (12% kibbutz, 10.5%
Jersild) and as receiving a gift or material object (7% kibbutz,
10.5% Jersild) in almost the same frequency. Interestingly, 5% of
the kibbutz children did not think it necessary to ascribe a
reason for the joy of the smiling child. They answered the
interviewer's question with one of their own: "Why shouldn't
the child be happy?" It appeared that a state of happiness was
for them something natural and usual, and not needinga special
explanation.

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Bettelheim, B. The Children of the Dream. New York: MacMillan Co., 1969.
Bowlby, J. Maternal Care and Mental Health. Geneva: World Health Organization,
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Bowlby, J. Children in the kibbutz. The Guardian, July 3, London, 1963.
Caldwell, M. B., Hersher, L., Lipton, E. L., Richmond, J. B., etal. Mother-infant interaction
in monomatric and polymatric families. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 1963,
33, 653-664.
Caplan, G. Clinical observations on the emotional life of children in the communal
settlements in Israel. In M. E. Senn (Ed.), Problems of Infancy and Childhood.
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Devereux, E. C., Shouval, R., Bronfenbrenner, U., eta/. Socialization practices of
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