Romanian orphan studies

Question 1

Rutter’s research - Procedure

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

Rutter’s research - Findings

Answer 2

• 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

Question 3

Zeanah’s research - Procedure

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

Zeanah’s research - Findings

Answer 4

• 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

Question 5

Effects of institutionalisation - Disinhibited attachment

Answer 5

• 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

Question 6

Effects of institutionalisation - Intellectual disability

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

Orphan studies - Evaluation - Strength

Answer 7

• 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

Question 8

Orphan studies - Evaluation - Limitation

Answer 8

• 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