effects of institutionalisation/ romanian orphans Flashcards
Method of Rutter’s study
he studied 165 romanian children who had previously lived in institutions and had been adopted by British families. they were compared to a control group of 52 British children adopted by the age of 6 months. the children were rested regularly for physical, social and intellectual development at the ages of 4, 6, 11 and 15 years
how many romanian children did Rutter study?
165
how many children were in Rutter’s control group of British children?
52
what ages were Rutter’s children tested at?
4 6 11 and 15
Findings of Rutter’s study regarding intellectual development
At the time of adoption, the Romanian children were behind the British children on all three aspects, and many had delayed intellectual development. By age 11, some children appeared to have made a full recovery- these were the children who had been adopted the earliest.
what were the IQ scores of the romanian children aged 11, varying in which ages they were adopted?
Adopted before 6 months- mean IQ of 102
between 6 months and 2 years - 86
after 2 years- 77
what did Rutter find in terms of social development of the romanian orphans?
many of the children adopted after the age of 6 months also showed disinhibited attachment: an attachment type where the child shows no preference for their parents over strangers. The child seeks comfort and attention from virtually anyone. they also tend to have friendship difficulties.
how long is the critical period for humans?
2.5 years
Procedure of the Bucharest Early Intervention project
Zeanah et al. assessed the attachment in 95 romanian orphans aged 12-31 months who had spend most of their lives in an institution and compared them to a control group of romanian orphans who had been placed in foster families. the infants had been randomly assigned to institutional care or foster care as part of the study. attachment type was measured using the Strange Situation test.
findings of the Bucharest Early intervention project
•74% of the control, fostered group was found to be securely attached to their identified caregiver
•19% were found to be attached to a caregiver in the institutionalised group
•44% of the institutionalised group showed signs of disinhibited attachment
how many of the Bucharest control, fostered group had a secure attachment to their identified caregiver?
74%
how many of the Bucharests institutionalised group has a secure attachment to their caregiver?
19%
what percentage of the Bucharest’s institutionalised group showed signs of disinhibited attachment?
44%
what do the findings of romanian orphan studies suggest about the effects of institutionalisation?
•institutionalisation can cause delayed physical, social and intellectual development. they are also less likely to form a later secure attachment and often show signs of disinhibited attachment. there was also many physical effects (underdeveloped)
•the longer it took for the infant to be adopted the lower the IQ. the earlier the child is removed from the institution the higher chance they will recover
what is disinhibited attachment?
the children are quite friendly and affectionate towards strangers and do not seem to have a preference for their caregivers over people they have just met, showing very little stranger anxiety.
why may disinhibited attachment occur?
it may be an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation. in romanian orphanages the infants may have 50 carers none of whom they see enough to form a secure attachment to
two effects of institutionalisation
•disinhibited attachment
•intellectual delay
strength of this research: real life applications
•it has enhanced our understanding of the effects of institutionalisation which have led to the way children are being looked after in the care system. for example efforts have been made to have less caregivers per child but rather one key worker. by having a key worker the child would avoid disinhibited attachment and form one normal attachment. this shows the research has been immensely valuable in practical applications.
strength: there are fewer extraneous variables with orphan studies (higher internal validity)
•other orphan studies often involved children who had experienced some loss or trauma before being studied and many suffered bereavement. these acted as confounding participant variables. however the romanian orphans were not subject to these confounding variables which means the findings have increased internal validity
limitation: Romanian orphanages were not typical
it is possible that the conditions were so bad that the results cannot be applied to understanding the impact of better quality care or any situation where a child experienced deprivation. for example, the romanian orphanages had extremely low levels of care and intellectual stimulation. this is a limitation as the unusual situational variables mean the study may lack generalisability
limitation: ethical issues
one of the methodological issues for Rutter’s project is that the children were not randomly assigned to conditions. The researches did not interfere with the adoption process, which means that those children adopted early may have been the more sociable ones, a confounding variable.
to control for such variables, the bucharest project used random allocation as the orphans were randomly allocated to institutional care or fostering. This removes the confounding variable and the raised ethical issues
what is the behaviour of securely, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attached children in adult relationships?
secure: had the best quality relationships and friendships, more likely to have balanced and long lasting relationships
insecure avoidant: struggles with intimacy, afraid of closeness and do not believe they need love to be happy, avoid romantic relationships and have high divorce rates
insecure resistant: have friendship difficulties, high levels of jealousy and obsessive behaviour in romantic relationships, tend to have lots of romantic relationships and have a high divorce rate
