Romanian Orphan Studies

Question 1

What is the background to the Romanian orphan studies

Answer 1

• in 1966, communist government tried to boost population - encouraged mothers to have at least 5 children and banned abortion
• poverty in country meant lots of families could not afford this
• when government was overthrown in 1989, 100,000 children were in 600 state run orphanages
• orphanages were minimally staffed and overpopulated - children received very little cognitive stimulation or emotional care

Question 2

Who ran the Romanian orphan study

Answer 2

Rutter

Question 3

What was the aim of Rutter’s study?

Answer 3

To investigate the long-term effects of institutional care and see the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions

Question 4

What was the procedure of Rutter’s study?

Answer 4

• longitudinal study started in early 1990’s following group of Romanian orphans adopted to the UK
• random sample of 165 children from Romania (144 had been in institutions) who had been adopted before age of 4. Were studied at 4,6 and 11
• compared with 52 non-institutionalised Uk children adopted before 6

Question 5

What were the results of Rutter’s study?

Answer 5

• at time of adoptions over half showed evidence of severe malnourishment
• IQ got lower the longer they were in orphanages
• 70.4% of those adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment compared to only 47.7% of those before 6 months
• 45% who showed disinhibited attachment at 6 showed it at 11 too

Question 6

What is disinhibited attachment?

Answer 6

• Where children don’t discriminate who they choose as an attachment figure
• long periods of institutional care in early life can lead children to behave in an attention seeking, overly familiar way with complete strangers and appear to select attachment figures indiscriminately
• in Rutter’s study, some kids randomly sat on the researchers knee

Question 7

What was the conclusion of Rutter’s study?

Answer 7

Institutionalisation can have relatively long-term negative effects on social, emotional and cognitive development, but these effects can be minimised if children are taken out of the institutional environment before 6 months

Question 8

What is developmental retardation?

Answer 8

• Children raised in institutions often showed delayed development and have a lower IQ on average compared to their peers.
• For example, in Rutter’s study, kids who had spent over 2 years in an orphanage had an average IQ of 77
• this seems to be a long lasting effect

Question 9

What is deprivation dwarfism?

Answer 9

• Children in institutional care are often physically smaller and research has shown that a lack of emotional care, rather than poor nourishment can lead to physical underdevelopment
• in Rutter’s study over half of the institutionalised children were in the bottom third for weight and head circumference

Question 10

Summarise evaluations for the Romanian orphan studies

Answer 10

• useful practical applications - enhanced understanding of negative effects of being raised in institutions
• promising evidence that recovery is possible - especially if they are adopted before 6 months
• hard to generalise - conditions in Romania were especially poor
• some long term effects may not be clear until adulthood - continuity hypothesis/internal working model