Effects of Institutionalisation: Romanian Orphan Studies

Question 1

Where were the adoptees from in Rutter’s study?

Answer 1

England and Romania

Question 2

Give the abbreviation for Rutter’s study and what it stands for.

Answer 2

ERA English and Romanian Adoptee

Question 3

What was the aim of Rutter’s research?

Answer 3

To investigate the extent that good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.

Question 4

What 3 things were assessed about the orphans in Rutter’s study?

Answer 4

Their physical, emotional and cognitive development.

Question 5

How many Romanian orphans were studied on Rutter’s research?

Answer 5

165

Question 6

What country had the Romanian orphans been adopted in?

Answer 6

England

Question 7

At what 4 ages and at what age range were the Romanian orphans assessed at?

Answer 7

4, 6, 11, 15 and between 22-25

Question 8

Describe the control group in Rutter’s study.
How many PPTs were there?

Answer 8

52 British adopted children.

Question 9

Roughly how many of Rutter’s PPTs showed signs of delayed intellectual development and undernourishment?

Answer 9

Half (around 83).

Question 10

In Rutter’s study, what was the mean IQ for children who were adopted before 6 months?

Answer 10

102

Question 11

In Rutter’s study, what was the mean IQ of children who had been adopted between 6 months and 2 years?

Answer 11

88

Question 12

In Rutter’s study, what was the mean IQ of children who had been adopted after age 2?

Answer 12

77

Question 13

What type of attachment did children adopted after 6 months experience (Not Ainsworth’s types.)

Answer 13

Disinhibited attachment.

Question 14

Give the name of Zeanah’s research.

Answer 14

Bucharest early intervention project. (BEIP)

Question 15

What did Zeanah assess about the Romanian children who had lived in institutional care?

Answer 15

Their attachment type.

Question 16

How many children were assessed in Zeanah’s study?

Answer 16

95

Question 17

Name the way researchers assessed attachment type in Zeanah’s study.

Answer 17

They used the Strange Situation.

Question 18

Describe the control group used in Zeanah’s study.
Give the number of PPTs.

Answer 18

50 children who had never lived in an institution.

Question 19

In Zeanah’s study, what were parents asked about their children?

Answer 19

They were asked about their behaviours.

Question 20

Give the age range of children in Zeanah’s study.

Answer 20

Age 12-31 months.

Question 21

What percentage of the control group were classified as securely attached in Zeanah’s study?

Answer 21

74%

Question 22

What percentage of the institutionalised group were classified as securely attached?

Answer 22

19%

Question 23

What percentage of the institutionalised group were said to have a disinhibited attachment?

Answer 23

44%

Question 24

What percentage of the control group in Zeanah’s study were said to have disinhibited attachment?

Answer 24

22%

Question 25

What are the traits of disinhibited attachments?
How do children with this attachment type behave towards familiar and unfamiliar adults?

Answer 25

The child shows signs of attention seeking, clinginess and behaves similarly towards strangers and familiar adults.

Question 26

What are disinhibited attachments usually a result of?

Answer 26

Multiple attachments to several caregivers.

Question 27

At what age did children adopted before 6 months catch up with the intellectual development of the control group?

Answer 27

Age 4

Question 28

Explain the strength that Romanian orphan studies can be applied to improve conditions for children who have grown up outside their family home.
Have institutions have positive or negative effects on children?
What have we changed about institutions that has led to improvements?
How many attachments will children raised in institutions usually have? What the attachment type caused by this called?
Instead of institutional care, what do we do with orphaned children now? How does this improve child development?

Answer 28

Studying the Romanian orphans has improved our understanding of how to prevent the negative effects of institutionalisation. This has led to improvements in how children in care homes are looked after. For example, in children’s homes, a child will usually have one or two caregivers that they can form a secure attachment to rather than multiple disinhibited attachments to several people. Institutional care is viewed as undesirable now, and effort is made to adopt or foster children instead. This therefore allows children to develop normal attachments.

Question 29

Explain the strength of Romanian orphan studies lacking confounding variables.
Before the Romanian orphans became available, why might children typically have been orphaned? What events might these children have experienced leading to their orphanage?
Why were the Romanian children orphaned as opposed to other children? How does this remove confounding variables?
Therefore, results are much less likely to have been impacted by…

Answer 29

There were many orphan studies before the Romanian orphans became available. Many of the children studied in orphanages had experienced varying degrees of trauma and its difficult to remove the effects of neglect, physical abuse and bereavement from those of institutional care. However, the children from Romanian orphanages had, in the main, been handed over by loving parents who couldn’t afford to keep them. This means that results were much less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences.

Question 30

Explain the limitation of Romanian Orphan studies lacking data on adult development of orphaned children.
The latest ERA study looked at children who were now around what age?
Why does this not allow us to answer questions about long term effects of institutional care?
Name 2 things that a lack of adult data stops us from understanding.
Name the type of study the ERA is and a limitation of it.
Therefore, why will it take a long time to understand the full effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 30

The latest data from the ERA study looked at the children in their 20s. this means that we don’t currently have the data to answer questions about the long-term effects of institutional care. These questions include about the effects of institutions on mental health and success in forming and maintaining relationships. It will take a long time to gather this data because of the longitudinal design of the study. This means that it will be a long time before we know the full effects of institutionalisation.

Question 31

Explain the limitation of Romanian orphan studies being socially sensitive.
What was one of the impacts of late adoption?
Why might teachers and parents lower their expectations of the child?
What type of prophecy could this lead to?

Answer 31

The studies show that late adopted children have poor developmental outcomes. Results have been published while the children have been growing up, meaning that parents and teacher s may have lowered their expectations of the child. This could therefore impact the child’s development further, as it could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.