Romanian orphan studies: insistutionalisation

Question 1

What are Romanian orphan studies and what are they studying?

Answer 1

• they are studies concerned with children placed in care because their parents cannot look after them
• institutionalisation > the effects of institutional care on a child’s attachment & development

Question 2

What did Rutter conduct?

Answer 2

English Romanian Adoptee study (ERA)

Question 3

What was the aim of Rutters research?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

How many Romanian orphans did Rutter follow and at what ages was physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed in Rutters research?

Answer 4

-165 Romanian orphans adopted by british families
- 4,6,11, 15 & 22-25

Question 5

Who were the Romanian adoptees compared to?

Answer 5

• a control group of 52 British adoptees

Question 6

What were Rutters findings when Romanian adoptees first arrived in the UK?

Answer 6

• They were malnourished and showed signs of delayed intellectual development

Question 7

What did recovery rates in Rutters study relate to at the age of 11?

Answer 7

age of adoption

Question 8

What was the mean IQ for Romanians adopted in the first 6 months, 6 months-2years & after two years?

Answer 8

• 6 months=102
• 6months-2years = 86
• after 2 years=77

Question 9

In Rutters study what was the difference in attachment outcome between those adopted before or after 6 months?

Answer 9

• those orphans adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment
• symptoms included: attention seeking, clinginess, indiscriminate affection

Question 10

What did Rutter conclude from his study?

Answer 10

• Supports there is a sensitive period in development of attachments and without this attachment they can have long lasting effects

Question 11

What project did Zeanah et al conduct?

Answer 11

Bucharest Early Intervention project (BEI)

Question 12

What did Zeanah et al assess and what was her sample?

Answer 12

• assessing attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months, who spent most of their lives in institutions> using the strange situation to measure attachment type

Question 13

Who was Zeanah et al’s sample compared to?

Answer 13

• control group of 50 children who never lived in an institution

Question 14

What did Zeanah et al find in relation to secure attachments?

Answer 14

• only 19% of institutionalised group were classes as securely attached compared to 74%of control group

Question 15

What percentage of children in Zeanah et al’s study were classified with a disorganised attachment & disinhibited?

Answer 15

• 65% disorganised
• 44% disinhibited

Question 16

What are the two effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 16

• disinhibited attachment
• damage to intellectual disability

Question 17

What is disinhibited attachment?

Answer 17

• child is equally friendly and affectionate to strangers and people they know

Question 18

What does Rutter say disinhibited attachment is an adaption of?

Answer 18

• Living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period

Question 19

What is a strength of Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 19

• practical application
• Langdon >results have helped to improve conditions for children growing up outside family home
• children’s homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child
• instead there are 1/2 key workers who play a central role in emotional care > more effort made to accommodate children in foster care or adoption
• this gives a child the chance to develop normal attachments in order to avoid disinhibited attachment

Question 20

What is another strength of Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 20

• lack of CV’s
• previous CVs in other Romanian studies included children experiencing varying degrees of trauma, such as neglect, abuse & bereavement
• Romanian orphan studies differ>children were handed over by loving parents who could not afford to keep them
  > results less likely to be confounded by early negative experiences = high internal validity

Question 21

What is a limitation of Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 21

• lack of data on adult development - the long term effects of institutionalization is not clear > as adopted Romanian orphans have only been followed into their mid teens
• still waiting to answer research questions on lifetime prevalence of mental health problems, success in forming and maintaining adult romantic & parental relationships etc
• long time to gather data due to longitudinal study, lacks validity

Question 22

What is another limitation of Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 22

• they are socially sensitive > results show that late adopted children have poor developmental outcomes
• results have been published while the children have been growing up which means parents, teachers or anyone who knew them may have created a self-fulfilling prophecy
• c : cost benefit analysis