lesson 8- institutional care

Question 1

Institutional care

Answer 1

When a child’s living arrangements are outside of the family, some children are raised in institutions such as childrens homes, hostels, hospitals
Children raised in institutions can adopt the rules and norms of the institution which could impair functioning and lead to a loss of personal identity

Question 2

Rutter et al (2010)

Answer 2

Procedure- 165 Romanian children who spent their early lives in Romanian orphanages before being adopted, suffered effects of institutionalisation, adoptees were tested at regular intervals (ages 4,6,11,15) to assess their physical, cognitive and social development, progress was compared to a control group of 52 British children adopted in the uk before the age of 6 months
Findings- at the time of adoption the Romanian orphans lagged behind their British counterparts on all measures, by age four the Romanian children adopted before the age of 6 months had caught up with the British counterparts however a significant number of individuals adopted after the age of 6 months still had significant deficits at age four
Conclusions- suggests long-term consequences of institutionalisation may be less severe that was once thought if children are adopted before 6 months and receive sensitive parenting, however if children are not adopted by six months then the consequences of institutionalisation are likely to be severe

Question 3

Effects of institutionalisation

Answer 3

Delayed intellectual development- low IQ, concentration problems, struggle at school as cannot learn new behaviours and concepts quickly, delayed language development
Disinhibited attachment- may not know appropriate behaviour towards a stranger, can be overly affectionate and attention-seeking
Emotional development- children raised in institutions can have difficulty managing their anger
Lack of internal working model- difficulties interacting with peers and forming close relationships, as adults will have impaired adult relationships and can struggle to parent own children
Quasi-Autism- struggle to understand meaning of social contexts, obsessional behaviours, lower frequency of pretend play and reduced empathy
Delayed physical development- usually physically small, lack of emotional care rather than poor nourishment is the cause of deprivation dwarfism

Question 4

Evaluation (2 strengths 3 weaknesses)

Answer 4

-studies have enhanced our understanding of potential negative consequences of institutional care and led to establishment of key workers to provide emotional care for children
-led to changes in adoption process, in the past mothers encouraged to nurse children for as long as possible before giving them up for adoption, today most babies are adopted in their first week of life/certainly before six months
-problems with generalising findings of studies of Romanian orphans as standards of care were particularly poor, faced with much more than emotional deprivation, physical conditions were appalling, lack of cognitive stimulation, likely that long-term damage from institutional care only occurs when there are multiple risk factors
-possible that negative effects can be reduced by sensitive parenting, Le Mare and Audet (2006) conducted longitudinal study of 36 Romanian orphans adopted to families in Canada, were physically smaller than a matched control group at age 4 but this difference had disappeared by 10, same was true for psychological health
-adoption and control groups were not randomly allocated to conditions in studies, means that participant variables between the children could influence the findings in unanticipated ways, adopted children might have been adopted because of personal characteristics such as resilience or being more sociable, might explain why they were less affected by institutional care, lowers validity of research