Romanian Orphan Studies: Effects Of Institutionalisation Content Flashcards

1
Q

What is the main study from this topic?

A

Rutter and Sonuga-Barke (2010)

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2
Q

Why were Romanian children sent to orphanages?

A

The communist regime in Romania led to overpopulation as contraception was banned, but the economy couldn’t supply for all these children. They were sent to orphanages

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3
Q

What were conditions like in the Romanian orphanages?

A

. Multiple in a cot
. Not fed properly
. Even older babies didn’t get own bed
. No emotional care

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4
Q

What is an orphan study?

A

The study of a child who has been placed in care as parents not longer able to care for them

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5
Q

What is institutionalisation?

A

Any effects of living in an institutional setting e.g orphanages, prisons, hospitals

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6
Q

How many studied in the ERA?

A

165 Romanian orphans adopted in the UK

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7
Q

What is another name for the Romanian orphans study?

A

ERA study - English and Romanian adoptees

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8
Q

What is Michael Rutter known as?

A

The ‘father of child psychiatry’

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9
Q

What was the aim of the Romanian orphan study?

A

To investigate to what extent would recovery be possible when extremely depriving conditions in early life were followed by generally good conditions in middle childhood

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10
Q

How were the Romanian orphans tracked in the study?

A

Longitudinally - over a long period of time

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11
Q

What was the experimental group (Romanian orphans) compared to?

A

A control group of 52 British children adopted before 6 months old
- hadn’t been in an institution

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12
Q

When were the groups of the ERA study first assessed?

A

At 4 years old

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13
Q

How often were the groups of children tested and how?

A

At 4, 6, 11 and 15 years old - regular intervals
Assessed using:
. Direct observations
. Psychometric assessments to assess physical, cognitive and social development
. Interviews with parents and teachers to gather extra information

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14
Q

How were the 165 Romanian orphans split into different groups of time of adoption?

A

58 babies adopted before 6 months
59 adopted between 6 months and 2 years
48 adopted between 2-4 years old

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15
Q

What is the research method of the ERA study?

A

Natural experiment

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16
Q

How old were the Romanian orphans when they went to the orphanages?

A

1-2 weeks, with minimal adult contact

17
Q

What were the general findings of the ERA study?

A

. On adoption, all Romanian orphans lagged behind British control group in physical, social and cognitive development
- malnourished, smaller, mentally retarded
. Some children caught up by age 4, especially for most adopted before six months
. Correlation between age of adoption and rate of recovery
. Earlier adoption = higher mean IQ
. Adopted after 6 months = signs of disinhibited attachment

18
Q

What do the ERA study findings suggest about the effects of institutionalisation?

A

Long term consequences are less severe than imagine IF children form attachments early on. If they don’t, the consequences are likely to be severe

19
Q

What were the ERA findings on disinhibited attachment?

A

. By age 6, 26% Romanian orphans showed it, while only 3.8% British adoptees showed it
. By 11, 54% Romanian orphans showed this pattern

20
Q

What were the findings on mean IQ in ERA study?

A

. Age 11: 102 IQ for those adopted before 6 months
. Age 11: 86 IQ for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years
. Age 11: 77 IQ for those adopted after 2 years

21
Q

What is disinhibited attachment?

A

Form of insecure attachment - Typical effect of living in an institution, infants show indifference towards their care-givers and strangers, as they are friendly and affectionate to both

22
Q

How did Rutter (2006) explain disinhibited attachment?

A

As partly due to the fact that infants living in institutions had multiple care-givers during the sensitive/critical period, as the Romanian orphanages had no consistency of care. Not seeing a specific care-giver enough stops a secure attachment from forming

23
Q

What are the 2 other studies on Romanian orphans?

A

Le Mare and Audet (2006)
Zeanah et al (2005)

24
Q

What did Le Mare and Audet (2006) do?

A

Reported the findings from a longitudinal study of 36 Romanian orphans adopted to families in Canada

25
Q

What were the dependent variables in Le Mare and Audet (2006)?

A

Physical growth and health

26
Q

What were the findings of Le Mare and Audet (2006)?

A

The adopted orphans were physically smaller than a matched control group at age 4 and a half years, but the difference disappeared by 10 and a half years
Same for physical health

27
Q

What did the findings of Le Mare and Audet (2006) suggest?

A

Recovery is possible from the effects of institutionalisation on physical development

28
Q

What was the procedure of Zeanah et al (2005?

A

. Used 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months
. Attachment assessed on children who spent average of 90% of lives in institution
. Control group pf 50 children who never lived in an institution used
. Strange situation used on these children
. Carers were asked if the child exhibited any unusual behaviours (interviews)

29
Q

What were the findings of Zeanah et al (2005)?

A

. 74% control group were securely attached
. 19% institutional group securely attached
. 65% institutional group had disinhibited attachment

30
Q

What are the main effects of institutionalisation?

A

. Physical underdevelopment (deprivation dwarfism)
. Intellectual under functioning
. Disinhibited attachment

31
Q

How did Gardner (1972) show the effects of emotional care on physical development?

A

Studied a case study of a girl who had been fed through a tube
. Her mum would never cuddle her
. At 8 months, she was withdrawn and physically stunted
. Went to a hospital and thrived off the attention, turning back to normal size

32
Q

What can be concluded from Gardner (1972) study?

A

The lack of emotional care can affect growth hormones, as seen in institutionalisation

33
Q

What are characteristics of disinhibited attachment?

A

Attention seeking and over friendly

34
Q

What did Skodak and Skeels (1949) find about the effects of institutionalisation on cognitive development?

A

Found that children placed in institutions scored poorly on intelligence tests. However, when the same children where transferred to a separate institution with emotional care, the IQ scores increased by almost 30 points

This shows that the lack of emotional care in institutions is what causes the cognitive underdevelopment