L9 - instituional care

Question 1

what is institutional care

Answer 1

• when a child’s living arrangements are outside of the family
• children adopt rules and norms of institution which impairs function and leads to a loss of personal identity (deindividuation)

Question 2

who studied the romanian orphans

Answer 2

rutter

Question 3

procedure of the romanian orphans study

Answer 3

• 165 romanian children who spent early lives in orphanages before being adopted
• adoptees tested at regular intervals, age 4,6,11,15 to assess physical, cognitive and social development
• compared to control group of 52 british children adopted in UK before 6 months

Question 4

findings of the romanian orphan study

Answer 4

• at time of adoption, romanian orphans lagged on all measures of development
• by 4, romanian’s adopted before 6 months had caught up with british counterparts
• large number of individuals adopted after 6 months still had development deficits at age 4

Question 5

conclusions from romanian orphans study

Answer 5

• LT consequences of institutionalisation may be less severe than once thought if children are adopted before 6 months and receive sensitive parenting
• if not adopted by 6 months, consequences are likely to be severe

Question 6

what are the 6 effects of institutionalisation

Answer 6

• delayed intellectual development
• disinhibited attachment
• emotional development
• lack of internal working model
• quasi-autism
• delayed physical development

Question 7

what is delayed intellectual development

Answer 7

• low IQ
• concentration problems
• struggle at school to learn new behaviours and concepts
• delayed language development

Question 8

what is disinhibited attachment

Answer 8

• unaware of appropriate behaviour towards strangers
• overly affectionate
• attention-seeking

Question 9

what is emotional development

Answer 9

• difficulty managing anger e.g. more temper tantrums than other children

Question 10

what is lack of internal working model

Answer 10

• difficulty interacting with peers and forming close relationships
• as adults, they have impaired adult relationships and struggle to parent their own children

Question 11

what is quasi-autism

Answer 11

• struggle to understand meaning of social contexts
• obsessional behaviour
• lower frequency of pretend play
• reduced empathy

Question 12

what is delayed physical development

Answer 12

physically small due to lack of emotional care - deprivation dwarfism

Question 13

2 strengths of effects of institutionalisation

Answer 13

• enhanced understanding of potential negative consequences of institutional care, led to employment of key workers in institutions to provide emotional care for children
• led to changes in adoption process, in the past mothers were encouraged to nurse their children as long as possible before adoption, now most adopted within first week of life

Question 14

2 weaknesses of effects of institutionalisation

Answer 14

• problems generalising findings as poor standards of care in romania, physical conditions were appalling, lack of cognitive stimulation, likely that LT damage from institutional care occurs when there are multiple risk factors
• adoption and control groups were not randomly allocated to conditions, pp variables between children could influence findings, adopted children may be due to more resilience or being more sociable, so less affected by institutional care lowering validity