Hodges and Tizard (1989) Children Raised in Institutions

Question 1

Method

Answer 1

• Longitudinal study of 65 children who had been placed in a residential nursery before they were four months old,
• Hadn’t had the opportunity to form close attachments with any of their caregivers,
• By the age of four, some of the children had returned to their birth mothers, some had been adopted, and some had stayed in the nursery.

Question 2

Results

Answer 2

• At 16 years old, the adopted group had strong family relationships, although compared to the control group of children from a normal home environment, they had weaker peer relationships,
• Those who stayed with the nursery or who returned to their mothers showed poorer relationships with family and peers than those who were adopted.

Question 3

Conclusion

Answer 3

• Children can recover from early maternal privation if they are in a good quality, loving environment,
• Although their social development may not be as good as children who have never suffered privations.

Question 4

Evaluation

Answer 4

• Natural experiment; high ecological validity,
• Sample = small, more than 20 of the children couldn’t be found at the end of the study; hard to generalise the results,
• Lots of institutionalised children are often underfed and malnourished; could be these factors that influence their behaviour, rather than lack of attachment.