Romanian Orphan Studies Flashcards
List the two Romanian orphan studies
Rutgers ERA study
Bucharest early intervention project
Describe Rutters ERA study’s procedure
165 Romanian orphans adopted into the UK. Physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed at age 4,6,11 and 15. Control group of 52 British adopted children
Describe rutters findings
When arriving in the UK, delayed intellectual development and malnourishment.
IQ before 6 months = 86
IQ after 6 months = 77
Differences remained at 16
Disinhibited attachment if adopted after 6 months
Who undertook the Bucharest early intervention project?
Zeanah et al
Describe the procedure for the Bucharest early intervention project
Assessed 95 children aged 12-31 months in institutional care. Control group of 50 children not in care. Used the SS.
Describe the findings of the Bucharest early intervention study
74% control securely attached
19% institutionalised group securely attached
64% institutionalised group had disorganised attatchment
Describe the effects of early institutionalisation
Disinhibited attachment and intellectual delay if institutionalisation prolonged. Can lead to mental retardation.
However, can be recovered if adopted before 6 months
One limitation of Romanian orphan studies (AO3)
Romanian orphans not typical
Could be that conditions were so bad that results cannot be generalised to any child experiencing deprivation. Eg. Romanian orphanages had poor standards of care (situational variables)
Describe the real life application of these studies (AO3)
Enhanced understanding of effects of institutionalisation. Led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions.
Eg. Orphanages now avoid having large numbers of children per caregiver. (Key worker)
Do these studies have fewer extraneous variables? (AO3)
Yeah
Many orphans studies done before but done on children who had other experiences other trauma eg. War, loss etc. traumatised before institutionalisation (cofounding variables)
Romanian orphans have high internal validity.
