Lesson 11: Romanian Orphan Studies- Effects of Institutionalisation

Question 1

Institutionalisation definition

Answer 1

When babies and children are placed in an institution- (which is living arrangements outside the family/family home) in a building such as a hospital, mental home or orphanage where due to unfortunate circumstances, are unable to be looked after by parents or caregivers in their normal home.

Question 2

Two negative consequences of institutionalisation

Answer 2

• The child may adopt rules and norms of the institution that can impair functioning
• Can lead to loss of personal identification, deindividuation

Question 3

What happened in Romania that allowed psychologists to study deprivation?

Answer 3

In 1966, the Romanian government, under the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu tried to boost the population of Romania by encouraging parents to have large families and also banning abortion.

As a consequence, babies could not be cared for by their families. When the regime collapsed in 1989, the western world became aware of the plight of the orphans in institutional care in Romania. There were more than 100,000 orphans in 600 state-run orphanages. The children spent days alone in their cribs with very little stimulation i.e. malnourished and uncared for.

Question 4

Rutter and Songua-Barke procedure

Answer 4

They have led a study of a group of Romanian orphans since the early 1990s called ‘ERA’ (The English-Romanian Adoptee study). The study includes 165 Romanian children who spent their early lives in Romanian institutions and thus suffered the effects of institutionalisation. The children fell into three age groups:
- 54 adopted before the age of 6 months
- 57 adopted between 6 months and 2 years
- 54 adopted between 2-4 years

Adoptees tested at regular intervals (ages 4, 6, 11 and 15 years) to assess their physical, cognitive and social development. Info also gathered in interviews with parents and teachers. Their progress has been compared with a control group of 52 British children adopted in the UK before the age of 6 months.

Question 5

Rutter and Songua-Barke findings

Answer 5

• At the time of adoption, Romanian orphans lagged behind their British counterparts on all measures of physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. For example, most were malnourished and showed signs of mental retardation when entering UK.
• By age 4 some had caught up with their British counterparts
• At age 11 mean IQs:
• 6 months was 102
• Between 6 months and 2 years was 86
• Between 2-4 years was 77
• Children from 2-4 years were more likely to suffer mental health issues and those adopted after 6 months showed signs of ‘disinhibited attachment’ e.g. being very clingy to unfamiliar and familiar adults

Question 6

How did Rutter explain a disinhibited attachment?

Answer 6

As an adaptation to living with mutiple careers during the critical period for attachment formation. In poor quality institutions like those in Romania, a child might have 50 carers- none of whom they see enough to form secure attachments.

Question 7

Evaluation of Rutter and Songua-Barke study

Answer 7

• Not knowing the conditions of the orphanages in Romania before the children entered the UK
• Ethical issues such as consent since children did not give consent because they were too young
• Only some of the children received detailed clinical investigations so it is difficult to fully generalise the findings
• Natural experiment, so extraneous variables which could have affected the findings such as the quality of care received from the parents of the adopted children