Romanian orphan studies Flashcards

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1
Q

Rutter’s research - Procedure

A
  • Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans for many years as part of the English and Romanian adoptee (ERA) study
  • Orphans had been adopted by families in the UK
  • Aim of ERA has been to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
  • Physical,emotional and cognitive development has been assessed at ages 4,6,11,15 and 22-25 years
  • A group of 52 children from the UK adopted around the same time acted as a control group
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2
Q

Rutter’s research - Findings

A
  • When they first arrived in the UK, 1/2 of the orphans showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely undernourished
  • Age 11 - children showed differential rates of recovery - related to age of adoption
  • Mean IQ of those children adopted before 6 months was 102 - 86 for those adopted 6 months-2 years - 77 for those adopted after 2 years
  • Differences remained at age 16
  • ADHD was more common in 15 and 22-25 year old samples
  • Att depended on when they were adopted (better if adopted before 6 months)
  • Children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited att - children adopted before 6 months showed no signs of that
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3
Q

Zeanah’s research - Procedure

A
  • Bucharest early intervention (BEI) project
  • Assessed att in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives living in an institution
  • Compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution
  • Att type measured using the SS
  • Carers were asked about unusual social behaviours (e.g clingy, attention-seeking) directed inappropriately at adults
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4
Q

Zeanah’s research - Findings

A
  • 74% of control group were classed as securely attached
  • Only 19% of institutional group were securely attached
  • Description of disinhibited att applied to 44% of institutionalised group as opposed to 20% control
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5
Q

Effects of institutionalisation - Disinhibited attachment

A
  • Children are equally friendly and affectionate towards familiar people and strangers
  • Rutter explained this as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for att formation
  • In institutions like in Romania, a child can have up to 50 carers but doesn’t spend enough time with each one to form a secure att
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6
Q

Effects of institutionalisation - Intellectual disability

A
  • In Rutter’s study most children showed signs of intellectual disability when they were first adopted
  • It appears like emotional development , damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalisation can be recovered provided adoption takes place before 6 months old
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7
Q

Orphan studies - Evaluation - Strength

A
  • Real world application
  • Improved psychologists understanding of effects of early institutional care and how to prevent the worse of these effects
  • Led to improvements in children’s homes - 2 key workers per child
  • Institutional care is now seen as an undesirable option for orphans
  • Means children in institutional care have a chance to develop normal att
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8
Q

Orphan studies - Evaluation - Limitation

A
  • Lack of data on adult development
  • Latest data looked at the orphans in their mid 20’s
  • Means we don’t currently have data to answer questions about long term effects of institutionalisation - e.g mental health, forming relationships
  • Will take a long time to gather data as it is a longitudinal study
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