Romanian orphan studies

Question 1

What is institutionalisation?

Answer 1

• A term for the effects of living in an institutional setting.

Question 2

What was the Rutter’s ERA (English and Romanian adoptee) study?

Answer 2

AIM: To investigate whether a good experience in care could make up for a poor experience in Romania.

PARTICIPANTS: 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain

PROCEDURE: The orphan’s physical, cognitive and emotional development were assessed at 4,6,11 and 15 years old. 111 of these children were adopted before 2 years old and the others were adopted by 4 years old. This was compared to a control group of 52 British adopted children.

Question 3

What were the findings of Rutter’s ERA (English and Romanian adoptee) study?

Answer 3

• At age 4 - showed signs of cognitive delay and the majority were malnourished.
• At age 11 - rates of recovery differed depending on the age of adoption.
• IQ was higher for children adopted before 6 months
• At age 16 - differences remained at age 16 (Beckett et al (2010))

Question 4

What were the findings of Rutter’s ERA (English and Romanian adoptee) study, in terms of attachment?

Answer 4

• Children adopted after 6 months showed disinhibition attachment.
• Children adopted before 6 months rarely showed disinhibition attachment

Question 5

What was the Bucharest early intervention project?

Answer 5

Zeanah et al (2005):

AIM: To understand the impact of institutionalisation

PARTICIPANTS: 95 children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care.

PROCEDURE: Assessed attachment in institutionalised children and compared this to 50 children who had never lived in an institution (control group). Attachment type is measured via strange situations. Carers were also asked about unusual social behaviour (clingy attention-seeking behaviour)

Question 6

What were the findings of the Bucharest early intervention project?

Answer 6

For institutionalised children:
- 19% of institutionalised group = securely attached
- 65% of IG = disorganised attachment
- 44% of IG = disinhibited attachment

For control group:
- 74% of control group = securely attached
- 20% of control group = disinhibited attachment

Question 7

What is the effect of institutionalisation on attachment?

Answer 7

Disinhibited attachment:
- It is a typical effect of spending time in an institution. They are equally friendly and affectionate towards familiar people and strangers. This is highly unusual behaviour and could be an adaptation as they have multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment.

Question 8

What is the effect of institutionalisation on learning?

Answer 8

Low IQ:

Most children showed signs of low IQ when they arrived in Britain. However, if they were adopted before 6 months, they were able to catch up. The average IQ of Romanian orphans was 86 (adopted after 6 months)

Question 9

(AO3) What is a strength of these studies?
(1)

Answer 9

Real-life application:

• Studying Romanian orphans has improved psychologists’ understanding of the effects of early institutional care and how to prevent the worst of these effects.
• This has led to improvements in the conditions experienced by looked-after children, such as children now tend to have 1-2 key workers who play a central role in their emotional care.
• This means that children in institutional care have a chance to develop normal attachments and disinhibited attachment is avoided.

Question 10

(AO3) What is a strength of these studies?
(2)

Answer 10

Fewer confounding variables:

• The study of orphans before the Romanian orphans became availiable to study, involved children in orphanages who had experince varying degrees of trauma.
• It is difficult to disentangle the effects of neglct and physical abuse from those of institutional care, however the children from the Romanian orphanages had been handed over by parent who couldn’t afford to keep them.
• This means that the results were much less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences, resulting in higher internal validity.

Question 11

(AO3) What is a weakness of these studies?

Answer 11

Romanian orphanages were not typical:

• It is possible that the conditions of Romanian orphanages were so bad that the results couldn’t be applied to understanding the impact of better quality institutional care or any situation where children experience deprivation.
• For example, Romanian orphanages had particularly poor standards of care, especially when it came to forming any relationship with the children, and extremely low levels of intellectual stimulation.
• This is a limitation of the Romanian orphan studies because the unusual situational variables mean the studies may lack generalisability.