Romanian Orphan Studies

Question 1

What are the symptoms of Type D/ Disinhibited Attachment?

Answer 1

-Symptoms include attention-seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar

Question 2

Who conducted the E.R.A study?

Answer 2

Rutter (2011)

Question 3

What study did Rutter (2011) conduct?

Answer 3

ERA/ English Romanian Adoptee Study

Question 4

What was the sample of the ERA study?

Answer 4

165 Romanian orphans

Question 5

What was the procedure of the ERA?

Answer 5

-Longitudinal study
-Physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at different ages (age 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years)
-A group of 52 children from the UK adopted around the same time have served as a control group.

Question 6

What were the aims of the ERA?

Answer 6

-to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.

Question 7

What was the control group used in the ERA?

Answer 7

-A group of 52 children from the UK adopted around the same time have served as a control group.

Question 8

What attachment type was shown in children adopted after 6 months of age? How does this compare to those adopted before 6 months?

Answer 8

-showed signs of disinhibited attachment.
- children adopted before rarely displayed disinhibited attachment.

Question 9

What was the mean IQ of children adopted before the age of six months?

Answer 9

102

Question 10

What was the mean IQ of children adopted between the ages of 6 months and 2 years?

Answer 10

86

Question 11

What was the mean IQ of children adopted after the age of 2 years?

Answer 11

77

Question 12

When the children first arrived, half showed signs of _____ and the majority were severely ____?

Answer 12

-When the children first arrived, half showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely undernourished

Question 13

At what age did the adopted children show differential rates of recovery related to their age of adoption?

Answer 13

At age 11

Question 14

Who conducted the BEI study?

Answer 14

Zeanah et al. (2005)

Question 15

What study did Zeanah et al. (2005) conduct?

Answer 15

BEI/ Bucharest Early Intervention study

Question 16

What was the sample of the BEI study?

Answer 16

-95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care (90% on average).

Question 17

What were the procedures of the BEI?

Answer 17

-attachment type was measured using the Strange Situation.
-In addition carers were asked about behaviour suggesting disinhibited attachment

Question 18

What was the control group used in the BEI?

Answer 18

-50 children who had never lived in an institution.

Question 19

What % of the control group in the BEI showed secure attachment?

Answer 19

74%

Question 20

What % of the control group showed disinhibited attachment?

Answer 20

less than 20%

Question 21

What % of the institutional group in the BEI showed secure attachment?

Answer 21

19%

Question 22

What % of the institutional group showed disinhibited attachment?

Answer 22

44%

Question 23

Rutter (2006) explained disinhibited attachment as an adaptation to ____?

Answer 23

-living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation.

Question 24

What IQ qualifies for Intellectual Disability Disorder?

Answer 24

Less than 70

Question 25

What are the strengths of Romanian Orphan Studies?

Answer 25

-lack of confounding variables
-real-world applications

Question 26

What are the limitations of Romanian Orphan Studies?

Answer 26

-socially sensitive
-lack of adult data.

Question 27

Explain the strength of Romanian Orphan Studies that it has real world applications?

Answer 27

-Romanian orphan studies have improved our understanding of the effects of institutionalization.
-Such results have led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions
-Institutions now no longer have large numbers of caregivers for each child- children now have one or two ‘key workers’ each that place a central role in emotional care.
-In addition, considerable effort in made to accommodate children in foster care or have them adopted, with institutions seen as a last resort.
-This means that children in institutional care have a chance to develop normal attachments and disinhibited attachment is avoided.

Question 28

Explain the strength of Romanian Orphan Studies that there is a lack of confounding variables?

Answer 28

-There were many orphan studies before the Romanian orphans became available to study
-However these studies often involved children who had experienced loss or trauma before they were institutionalized, therefore it’s very difficult to observe the effects of institutionalization in isolation because the children were dealing with other factors that acted as confounding participant variables.
-However, the children from Romanian orphanages had mainly been handed over by loving parents who could not afford to keep them.
-This means that results were much less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences
-This gives the studies higher internal validity.

Question 29

Explain the limitation of Romanian Orphan Studies that they are socially sensitive?

Answer 29

-The results of studies conducted into Romanian orphans have been published whilst the children have been growing up, therefore such research may be considered socially sensitive.
-The children’s parents’, teachers and anyone else who knew them might have lowered their expectations and treated the adopted children differently
-This potentially creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Question 30

Explain the limitation of Romanian Orphan Studies that there is lack of adult data?

Answer 30

-For example, the latest data from Rutter’s ERA study looked at the children in their 20s.
-This means that we do not currently have data to answer some of the most interesting research questions about the long- term effects of early institutional care.
-These research questions include the lifetime prevalence of mental health problems and participants’ success in forming and maintaining adult romantic and parental relationships.
-It is possible that late-adopted children may eventually ‘catch up’
-It will take a long time to gather this data because of the longitudinal design of the study, meaning that it will be some time before we know more completely what the long-term effects are for the Romanian orphans.