Romanian orphan studies Flashcards
Who conducted the Romanian orphan study in 2007?
Rutter
What was the aim of Rutter’s Romanian orphan study?
To investigate the long term effects of institutional care and to see the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.
What was the procedure of Rutter’s Romanian orphan study?
- Started in the early 1990’s and followed a group of Romanian children adopted to the UK from institutions in Romania.
- A randomly selected sample of 165 children from Romania who were adopted by UK families with placement before the age of 4, was studied at 4, 6 and 11 years of age.
- Comparisons were made with a sample of 52 non-institutionalised UK children adopted before the age of 6 months who were studied in the same way.
What were the results of Rutter’s Romanian orphan study?
Assessed at age 6, 70.4% of those adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment.
What was the conclusion of Rutter’s Romanian orphan study?
Institutionalisation can have relatively long term negative effects on social, emotional and cognitive development, but these effects can be minimised if children are taken out of the institutional environment before 6 months.
What effects of institutionalisation are shown in the Romanian orphan study?
- Disinhibited attachment
- Developmental retardation
- Deprivation dwarfism
What is meant by disinhibited attachment as a result of institutionalisation?
- Long periods of institutional care in early life can lead children to behave in an attachment seeking way with strangers and appear to select attachment figures indiscriminately.
- Rutter’s research: some kids randomly sat on the researchers (stranger) knee.
What is meant by developmental retardation as a result of institutionalisation?
- Children raised in institutions often showed delayed development and have a lower IQ on average than their peers.
- Rutter’s research: kids who spent over 2 years within an orphanage had an average IQ of 77.
What is meant by deprivation dwarfism as a result of institutionalisation?
- Children in institutional care are often physically smaller and research has shown that a lack of emotional care can lead to physical underdevelopment.
- Rutter’s research: over half of the institutionalised children were in the bottom third for weight and head circumference.
If the point is:
A strength of the Romanian orphan study is that it has useful practical applications.
What is the evidence and link?
Evidence- The research has enhanced our understanding of the possible negative effects of being raised in an institution. This has led to changes in institutions such as children’s homes, like the establishment of a key workers system to enable children to create attachment relationships.
Link- Therefore, due to this reearch, the negative affects that orphans suffer when raised in an institution have been bought to attention and cared for.
If the point is:
A weakness of the Romanian orphan study is that there are problems generalising them, as standards of care were particularly poor in these institutions, so the effects of being raised in these places may not be representative of living in all institutions of this type.
What is the evidence and link?
Evidence- In addition, it’s impossible to control extraneous variables in natural experiments of this type, so there may have been other factors affecting the differences between the Romanian adoptees and the controls.
Link- This implies we cannot take this research as completely valid evidence for the negative effects of institutionalisation.
If the point is:
A weakness of Romanian orphan studies is that it’s possible some of the long term effects of institutionalisation may not be clear until adulthood.
What is the evidence and link?
Evidence- This relates to the continuity hypothesis identified by Bowlby and the concept of the internal working model, which would suggest that the institutionalised children will go on to form poor relationships with their own children.
Link- Therefore, there is more research that needs to be done on these adopted children in order to see how their childhood experiences affect their adult relationships.
What are the evaluation points of the romanian orphan study?
+ It has useful practical applications
— There are problems generalising the results, as the standards of care were particularly poor in these institutions, so the effects of being raised in these places may not be representative of living in all institutions of this type
— It’s possible that some of the long term effects of institutionalisation may not be clear until adulthood
