Romanian Orphan studies: institustiltion Flashcards
Social sensitivity
On one hand the Romanian orphanage studies are socially sensitive because the results show that late-adopted children typically have poor developmental outcomes. This is especially so because the results have been published while the children were still growing up. This means that their parents, teachers and anyone else who knew them might have lowered their expectations and treated the adopted children differently. This might even have created a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the late-adopted children’s development was affected by the expectations of others.
On the other hand, there has been no evidence to show self-fulfilling prophecy effects, and psychologists have learned a lot from the Romanian orphanage studies, in particular the importance of early adoption or fostering. This information is very likely to benefit orphaned children and avoid long-term institutionalisation in the future.
So on balance it seems that the potential benefits of the Romanian studies outweigh their social sensitivity.
Real world application?
One strength of teh romaine prgane studies is their application to improve conditions for children growing up outside their family home. Studying teh romain orphans has improved psychologists understanding of the effects of early institutional care and how to prevent yeti worst of these effects. This has led to improvements in the conditions experienced by looked after children for example children growing up in care system. For example children homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child. Instead the children tend to have one or two key workers who plays a central role in their emotional care. Also instional care is made to accommodate such children in. Froster care or to have them adopted instead. This means that children in insistuational care have a chance to develop normal atatchmenast and dishinabited attachment is avoided.
Fewer confounding variables
Another strength of the Romanian studies is the lack of confounding variables.
There were many orphan studies before the Romanian orphans became available to study (e.g. orphans studied during the Second World War). Many of the children studied in orphanages had experienced varying degrees of trauma, and it is difficult to disentangle the effects of neglect, physical abuse and bereavement from those of institutional care. However the children from Romanian orphanages had, in the main have 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 (higher internal validity).
Counterpoint fewer confusing variables
On the other hand, studying children from Romanian orphanages might have introduced different confounding variables. The quality of care in these institutions was remarkably poor, with children receiving very little intellectual stimulation or comfort.
This means that the harmful effects seen in studies of Romanian orphans may represent tht effects of poor institutional care rather than institutional care per se.
Lack of adult data
One limitation of the Romanian orphanage studies is the current lack of data on adult development.
The latest data from the ERA Study looked at the children in their early- to mid-
205. 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 prohlems and participants’ success in forming and maintaining adult romantic and parental relationships. It will take a long time to gather this data because of the longitudinal design of the study, i.e. the same participants are followed over a long period.
This means it will be some time before we know more completely what the long-term effects are for the Romanian orphans. It is possible that late-adopted children may catch up
