Lesson 8: Institutional Care

Question 1

What is institutional care?

Answer 1

When a child’s living arrangements are outside the family e.g homes, hostels, hospitals. They can adopt the norms and rules of the institution, imparting functioning and a loss of personal identity (deindivudation)

Question 2

Rutter et al: Procedure of institutional care study

Answer 2

165 Romanian children who spent early life in orphanages and suffered institutionalisation. Tested at regular intervals (4,6,11,15) to asses physical, cognitive and social development. Compared to 52 control British group adopted in UK before 6 months

Question 3

Rutter et al: Findings of institutional care study

Answer 3

At the time of adoption, Romanian orphanages lagged behind British in all areas. At 4, Romanian’s adopted before 6 months caught up with British. But, a significant number of individuals adopted after 6 months had significant deficits at 4.

Question 4

Rutter et al: Conclusions of institutional care study

Answer 4

Long term consequences of institutionalisation may be less severe then once thought if children are adopted before 6 months, and get sensitive parenting

Question 5

What are the 6 effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 5

Delayed Intellectual development, Disinhibited Attachment, Emotional development, Lack of internal working model, Quasi-Autism, Delayed physical development

Question 6

What is delayed intellectual development?

Answer 6

Lower IQ, concentration problems. Struggle at school as they fail to learn new concepts as quickly. Delayed language development

Question 7

What is disinhibited attachment?

Answer 7

Children may not know appropriate behaviours towards strangers. Can be overly affectionate and attention seeking

Question 8

What is emotional development?

Answer 8

Children may have difficulty managing their anger

Question 9

What is a lack of internal working model?

Answer 9

Children may have difficulty interacting with peers and forming close relationships. As adults, they will have impaired adult relationships and can struggle to parent their own children

Question 10

What is Quasi-Autism?

Answer 10

Children may struggle to understand the meaning of social contexts and can have obsessional behaviours. They can have lower frequency of pretend play and reduced empathy

Question 11

What is delayed physical development?

Answer 11

Children are usually physically small, and research has shown that a lack of emotional care rather than poor nourishment is the cause of what has been called deprivation dwarfism

Question 12

Positives of studies into institutionalisation

Answer 12

1. Enhanced our understanding, key workers now provide emotional care
2. Changes in the adoption processes, mothers used to be told to nurse their baby for as long as possible, but now suggest they give them up instantly

Question 13

Negatives of studies into institutionalisation

Answer 13

1. Can’t generalise, very poor Romanian orphanages, many factors (emotional deprivation, lack of cognitive stimulation)
2. Institutionalisation can be reduced with sensitive parenting. Le Mere and Audet, 36 Romanian orphaned adopted to Canadian families, physically smaller to a control group at 4, but same at 10
3. Not randomly allocated sample, participant variables between children could influence findings. More social children tend to be adopted easier/less effected or more effected by institutions.