Attachment - Romanian orphan studies: Instiutionalisation

Question 1

Rutter (english and romanian adoptee study) - proedure

Answer 1

Followed group of 165 romanian orphans who experienced very poor conditions before being adopted in the UK

Longitudinal study - extent to which good care can make up for poor early experiences in instiutions
Physical, cognitive, emotional devlopment assessed at 4,6,11,15 and 22-25
Followed control group fo 52 adopted children from UK

Question 2

Findings and conclusions

Answer 2

There is a sensitive periodin the development of attachments - failure to form an attachment before the age of 6 months (and after the age of 2 years) appears to have long lasting effects

Question 3

Name two strengths of the study

Answer 3

Real world application - led to imporvements in the way children are cared for in institutions
Children’s homes avoid having large n.o of caregivers for each child - have one or two ‘key workers’ who play central role
Meeaning children in insitutional care have chance to develop normal atttachments and disinhibted attachment is avoided

Fewer confounding variables than other research

Question 4

What is a limitation

Answer 4

Lack of data on adult development

Too soon to say whether children suffered permanent effects as we only have data on their development as far as their early 20’s
WIll be some time before we have info about some key research questions
Meaning romanian orphan studies have not yet yielded their most important findings, some children may ‘catch up’