attachment- Romanian orphan studies: institutionalisation

Question 1

procedure of English and Romanian adoptee study (ERA)

Answer 1

-Rutter et al. (2011) English and Romanian adoptee study (ERA)
-researchers followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans who experienced very poor conditions before being adopted in the UK
-longitudinal study has tested the extent to which good care can make up for poor early experiences in institutions
-physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years
-study also followed a control group of 52 adopted children from the UK

Question 2

findings of English and Romanian adoptee study (ERA)

Answer 2

-half of the orphans showed delayed intellectual development when they came to the UK
-At age 11 recovery rates were related to their age at adoption:
-adopted before six months had a mean IQ of 102.
-adopted after two years had a mean 1Q of 77.
-differences continued to be apparent at age 16 (Beckett et al. 2010)
-Frequency of disinhibited attachment related to the age at adoption.
-apparent in children adopted after they were six months old: clinginess, attention-seeking and indiscriminate affection to strangers.
-rare in children adopted before the age of six months.

Question 3

conclusion of English and Romanian adoptee study (ERA)

Answer 3

-support Bowlby’s view that there is a sensitive period in the development of attachments - a failure to form an attachment before the age of six months (and after the age of 2 years) appears to have long-lasting effects.

Question 4

who researched the Bucharest early intervention project (BEI)

Answer 4

Zeanah et al. (2005)

Question 5

procedure of Bucharest early intervention project (BEI)

Answer 5

-used the Strange Situation to assess attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care
-compared to a control group of 50 children who had never experienced institutional care

Question 6

findings of Bucharest early intervention project (BEI)

Answer 6

-only 19% of the institutionalised group were securely attached (74% of controls)
-44% of the institutionalised group had characteristics of disinhibited attachment (20% of the controls)

Question 7

two effects of institutionalisation

Answer 7

-disinhibited attachment
-damage to intellectual development

Question 8

disinhibited attachement

Answer 8

-children equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know well or total strangers
-may be an adaption to multiple caregivers

Question 9

damage to intellectual development

Answer 9

-institutionalised children often show signs of intellectual disability
-effect is not as pronounced if the children are adopted before 6 months of age.

Question 10

ao3 romanian orphan studies: real-world application

Answer 10

-research from this hater led to improvements in the ways children are cared fro in institutions (Langton 2006)
-children’s homes now avoid having large no. of caregivers for each child. have one or two ‘hey workers’ who play central role
-means children in institutional care have chance to develop normal attachments and disinhibited attachment is avoided

Question 11

ao3 romanian orphan studies: fewer confounding variables than other research

Answer 11

-many orphan studies before, these often involved children who’d experiences loss or trauma before they were institutionalised
-neglect, abuse and bereavement meant hard to observe effects of institutionalisation in isolation. children were affected by multiple factors functioning as confounding variables
-means can be fairly sure differences in institutionally-cared-for children are result of this type of care (high interval validity)

Question 12

ao3 romanian orphan studies: CA to fewer confounding variables

Answer 12

-romanian orphan studies may have NEW confounding variables because quality of care was so poor, making it hard to separate effects of institutional care from those of poor institutional care.
-means that internal validity might not be better than in previous studies after all.

Question 13

ao3 romanian orphan studies: lack of data on adult development

Answer 13

-too soon to say for certain whether children suffered permanent effects because we only have data on their development as far as their early twenties
-be some time before we have information about some key research questions (e.g. orphans’ ability to form and maintain romantic and parenting relationships)
-means the
Romanian orphan studies have not yet vielded their most important findings, some children may
‘catch up’.