effects of institutionalisation Flashcards
Who led the key study called ERA? when did it begin
Rutter and Sonuga-Barke. it started in the 1990’s
what was the procedure of ERA?
The study included 165 Romanian children who had spent their early childhood in Romanian institutions and suffered the effects of institutionalisation. 111 of the children were adopted before the age of 2. and 54 were adopted before the age of 4. the adoptees were tested at regular intervals (4yrs, 6yrs, 11yrs, 15yrs) to assess their physical, cognitive and social development. their progress was compared to a control group of 52 British children adopted in the UK before 6 months
what did Rutter and Sonuga Barke find?
at the time of adoption, the romanian children lagged behind their british counterparts on all measures of cognitive, physical and social development. they were smaller, weighed less and classified as mentally retarded. if the romanian children were adopted before 6 months then they had caught up to the british children by the age of 4. if the romanians were adopted after 6 months, they showed signs of disinhibited attachments.
what did rutter and sonuga barke conclude about long term consequences of institutionalisation?
long term consequences were less severe if the children had opportunity to form attachments. if the children did not have this opportunity, the long term consequences were likely to be severe.
what are the 4 effects of institutionalisation?
Physical underdevelopment: a study has suggested that lack of emotional care can lead to deprivation dwarfism.
intellectual underfunctioning: a lack of emotional care can lead to a lack of cognitive development
disinhibited attachments: a type of attachment where people do not discriminate between who they choose as an attachment figure
poor parenting: Harlow showed that monkeys raised by surrogate mothers went on to become poor parents. this was further supported by Quinton who compared a control group of 50 women reared in children’s homes, compared to women reared in family homes. when the women were in their 20’s, the ex-institutional women experienced extreme difficulties acting as parents.
what is a strength of research into institutionalisation? (app)
a strength of this research is that is had to real world applications, and shows the importance of early adoption. in the past/before this research, women were encouraged to care for their baby for a significant period of time before putting it up for adoption. during this time, the critical period would pass and the baby would form an attachment to the mother, making it harder/less likely that the infant will form an attachment with the later caregivers. because of this research, babies are now adopted almost straight away, which means they are able to form attachments with adoptive caregivers. research shows that nowadays, adoptive families are just as securely attached as biological families. (Singer). this is a strength because it has led to positive application and is able to help people.
what is a limitation of research into institutionalisation? (individual differences)
research suggests children who dont form an attachment in the critical period are unable to recover, however this is not true for all ex-institutional children. there are individual differences; some children are worse effected than others. rutter suggested that some children received special treatment in their institutions and so did have some early attachment experience. furthermore, bowlby suggested individual differences in the way children cope
what is a limitation of research into institutionalisation? (slow development)
when the romanian orphans were last assessed at age 15, the number of disinhibited attachments had decreased. this suggests that the effects of institutionasation dissappear over time if children have good quality care. it may just be that ex-instutitional children need more time than normal to mature and learn about how to deal with relationships. this is a criticism because the research suggests that effects are irreversible, but this may not be true.
what is a strength of research into institutionalisation? (long)
it is a longitudinal study and so followed the children for many years. there are many benefits to this, for example, you can see that the effects can and do disappear over time. results are more accurate
