3.5 Romanian Orphans

Question 1

Institutionalisation

Answer 1

Behaviour patterns of children who have been raised in institutions

Question 2

How long are children usually in an institution

Answer 2

Long, continuous periods of time

Question 3

What is care like in an institution

Answer 3

Little emotional care

Question 4

4 effects of institutionalisation

Answer 4

1. Physical underdevelopment
2. Disinhibited attachment
3. Poor parenting
4. Intellectual under functioning

Question 5

Physical underdevelopment

Answer 5

Lack of emotional care may lead to physical underdevelopment

Production of hormones are affected by severe emotional disturbances
Result in deprivation dwarfism

Question 6

Disinhibited attachment

Answer 6

A form of insecure attachment where children do not discriminate between people, treating strangers with inappropriate familiarity and show attention seeking behaviour

Adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during sensitive period

Question 7

Poor parenting

Answer 7

Institutionalised children may become poor parents later in life

Question 8

Poor parenting - Quinton et al 1984

Answer 8

Women raised in institutions had extreme diffciltuy when acting as parents

Question 9

Poor parenting - Harlow 1960

Answer 9

The monkeys raised in isolation (without cloth mother) went on to become poor mothers
Many rejected their own offspring

Question 10

Intellectual under functioning

Answer 10

Kids who suffer prolonged separations from their families are often profoundly disturbed
Lag behind in intellectual development

Score poorly on IQ tests
When kids transfer and receive emotion care, IQ scores improve by >30 points

If adopted early enough

Question 11

Romanian orphans why

Answer 11

• communist rule of Ceausescu
• banned abortion, denied access to contraception and charged taxes to childless families
• at a time of severe food and energy shortages
• Romanians abandoned new born children, so 1000 suffered at under funded, state run orphanages
• gave psychologists opportunity to look at effects of deprivation on emotional and intellectual development

Question 12

Rutter ERA study aim

Answer 12

Researching the effects of institutionalisation on intellectual development and attachment type

Question 13

Rutter ERA study 2007 procedure

Answer 13

Longitudinal study following a group of 165 Romanian children who were adopted by British families at varying ages
• The children were assessed at the ages of 4, 6 , 11, 15 & 22-25 years using a range of measures, including:
– Parental reports of the child’s willingness to go off with strangers
– A home observation at age six measuring the extent to which the child made inappropriate contact with the researcher (e.g. being overly- familiar, cuddling, holding their hand, etc.)
– Assessment of peer relations at age 11 via teacher and parent reports. – IQ tests

Question 14

What type of experiment was Rutter ERA study

Answer 14

Natural experiment

Question 15

Rutter ERA study: Group 1

Answer 15

• 58 babies

Adopted before 6 months old

Question 16

Rutter ERA study: group 2

Answer 16

• 59

Adopted between 6 months and 2 years

Question 17

Rutter ERA study: group 3

Answer 17

• 48

Adopted between 2 and 4 years

Question 18

Rutter ERA study: control group

Answer 18

52 British children

Adopted around same age

Question 19

Rutter ERA study findings

Answer 19

When in uk, half of adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and physical under development

Question 20

Rutter ERA study findings: group 1

Answer 20

At age 11

Group 1 (adopted at 6 months )

Mean IQ 102
Developed in line with British control group

Question 21

Rutter ERA study findings: group 2

Answer 21

At age 11

Group 2 (6 months - 2 years)

Mean IQ 86
Disinhibited attachment
Problems forming peer relatiosnhios

Question 22

Rutter ERA study findings: group 3

Answer 22

At age 11

Group 3 (2-4 years)

Mean IQ 77
Disinhibited attachment
Problems forming peer relationships

Question 23

Rutter ERA study: conclusio.

Answer 23

The effects of institutionalisation can be overcome if an attachment is formed within the first 6 months, but after 6 months the negative effects tend to be more permanent

Question 24

Research support of Romanian orphan study

Answer 24

Zeneah et al 2005

Overcomes confounding variables of ERA study and finds similar effects of institutionalisation

Question 25

Real world application of Romanian orphan study

Answer 25

Enhanced understanding of effects of institutionalisation

Very valuable

Led to improvements:

For example, orphanages and children’s homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child and instead ensure that a much smaller number of people, perhaps only one or two, play a central role for the child e.g. a key worker

Key worker means that the children have the chance to develop normal attachments and helps avoid disinhibited attachment.

Question 26

Romanian orphan study: poor generalisability

Answer 26

• unique conditions in these orphanages - cant generalise findings

Question 27

Romanian orphan study: children not randomly allocated to groups (confounding variables

Answer 27

• children not randomely allocated
• The researchers did not interfere with the adoption process, which may mean that the more sociable children were adopted early and so their sociability acted as a confounding variable.

This makes it a quasi study rather than a natural study and affects the validity of the findings significantly

– This compromises the internal validity of the conclusions about the effects of institutionalisation because we cannot determine cause and effect.

However, this makes the study more ethical as they didn’t deliberately interfere with the adoption process

Question 28

Zeanah 2005

Answer 28

Assessed 136 children (12 – 31 months) who had spent most of their lives in institutional care (90% on average)
• Children randomly assigned to foster care or institutional care
• Control group 72 non-institutionalised children
• Assessed on attachment type using the Strange Situation, signs of disinhibited attachment and IQ

Control group – 74% securely attached
• Institutional group – 19% securely attached (44% disinhibited). Lower IQ than control group and foster care group.

Question 29

Why zeanah better than Rutter

Answer 29

More controlled study
• No significant trauma/bereavement that led to institutionalisation compared to ERA
• Random allocation of children to foster care v institution
• Increases internal validity and overcomes some major limitations of ERA