🟡 Attachment - Romanian Orphan Studies Flashcards
Privation
Doesn’t form an attachment with a mother figure. Feral ch9ldeen, brought up in wild
Institutionalisation
The effects of living in an institutional setting. Institutional setting refers to a place like a hospital, orphanage where children lived for a long, continuous period of time. Where little emotional care was provided
Summary of history of Romania
- communist rule, banned abortion and contraception
- caused many more babies to be born and many to have to abandon their new born so they were sent to state run orphanages
- 1989, western world became aware of the situation and realised many children were institutionalised
- 100,000 orphans in 600 orphanages
- children spent most days in cribs with little stimulation and became malnourished
What kind of study was RUTTERS
Longitudinal study = followed over a long period of time
Groups of method of Rutter (2011)
- group 1, 58 babies adopted before 6 months
- group 2, 59 babies adopted between 6-24 months
- group 3, 48 babies adopted between 2-4 years
Who did Rutter study
Studied Romanian Orphans, who were adopted by British parents, who had been placed in orphanages aged 1-2 weeks, with minimal adult contact.
Findings of RUTTERS study
- when first arrived in the UK, they were malnourished
- 11 year olds - correlation between rare of recovery and the age of adoption
- the earlier the adoption, the higher their mean IQ
- difference between those adopted within 6 months and those after 6
- if adopted after 6 months, signs of disinhibited attachment
- resulted in attention seeking and physical, cognitive and social developmental delay
Disinhibited attachment
Rare style of attachment where the infant is as friendly and open to a stranger as they are to a caregiver. They do not know how to behave in a strangers presence. They may behave inappropriately with no embarrassment , fear or anxiety
What did Rutter say disinhibited attachment was caused by
Because the infants living in orphans have multiple caregivers in the critical period
At what ages where the children assessed in RUTTERS experiment
4,6,11,21
Disinhibited attachment figures in RUTTERS study
- age 6 = 26% of Romanian orphans = disinhibited attachment, 3.8% of uk did
- by 11 = 54% of the Romanian group still showed this attachment
IQ figures in RUTTERS studyb
- age 11= mean IQ of 102 for those adopted before 6 months
- 86 = between 6 months and 2 years
- 77 for those after 2 years
What do RUTTERS figures about disinhibited attachment show
Shows if children are given no access to form emotional bond, then they are at risk of being able to form appropriate attachments and affects future attachments being made
Zeanah et al (2005) procedure
- 95 children 12-31 months old
- attachment assessed on children who spent most of their lives in an institution
- control group - 50 children who had never lived in an institution
- strange situation used on these children
- carers asked if child had any unusual behabiour
Zeanah et al (2005) findings
- 74% of the control group were securely attached
- 19% of the institutional group were securely attached
- 65% of this group were classed as having a disinhibited attachment
