Romanian orphan studies:institutionalisation Flashcards
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Definitions
- Institutionalisation-A term relates to living in an institutional setting ,like orphanages, hospitals in such places there is little emotional care provided,
- Orphan studies- Concern children placed in care because their parents cannot look after them
- Deprivation-Prolonged seperation from primary attachment figure
- Disinhibited attachment-Characterised by attention seeking, clinginess & social behaviours directed indiscriminately towards all adults , both familiar & unfamiliar
In attachment research we are interested in the effects of institutional care on childrens attachment & development
A01
Outline Romanian Orphan studies
Research on MD turned to Orphan studies as a means of studying the effects of deprivation on emotional & intellectual development
An opportunitiy to look at effects of institutional care & institutionalisation arose in Romania in 1990s
Former president required Romanian women to have 5 children
many parents could not afford to keep children & ended up in huge orphanages in poor conditions
After 1989, Romanian Revolution many children were adopted, some by British parents
key studies Rutter & Zeanah
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Define disinhibited attachment
- Disinhibited attachment-Characterised by attention seeking, clinginess & social behaviours directed indiscriminately towards all adults , both familiar & unfamiliar
- due to having too many caregivers within the critical period of attachment formation
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Outline Rutter et als aim
To investigate the effects of institutionalisation
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Outline Rutter et als
Procedure
Rutter & colleagues(2011) Conducted longitudinal study on 165 Romanian Orphans adopted by British parents as part of (ERA)]
>aim of ERA investigate extent of good care making up for poor experiences in institutions
>PIES assessed ages 4,6,11,15 & 22-25 years
> results were compared to 52 children adopted in Britain(contol group)
ERA- English & Romanian adoptee
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Outline Rutter et al-Findings
When children arrived in UK
>majority severel undernourished
> half adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development
At age 11 adopted children showed differential rates of recovery relates to their age
* Mean IQ adopted before 6 months-102, rarely displayed signs of disinhibited attachment
* adopted after 6 months- IQ 77 showed signs of disinhibited attachment
symptoms of DA:
>attention seeking, clinginess & social behaviours directed indiscriminately towards all adults, familiar & unfamiliar
In exam outline symptoms of disinhibited attachment
His findings suggest adoption within first 6 months is important as rate of recovery depend son age at adoption, & effects of privation are severe & long lasting
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Outline Zeanah et als- Research
(procedure)
Conducted (BEI) Project , assessing attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months, who spent most lives in institutional care
* compared to control group of 50 children not grown up in institutional care
* Attachment types measured using strange situation
( BEI) Bucharest early Intervention
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Outline Zeanah et als-Research
(Findings)
74% of controlled group classed as securely attached in the strange situation
>19% of institutional group were securely attached
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Outline 2 Effects of Institutionalisation
- disinhibited attachment
- Intellectual disability-Low IQ
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Outline Disinhibited attachment as one of the effect of institutionalisation
Effect of spending long time in institutions.
>RUTTER-explained disinhibited attachment as adaption to living with multiple caregivers during sensitive period of attachment formation
>in poor quality institutions-Romania child has many caregivers, not spend quality time to form a secure attachment towards them
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Outline Intellectual disability as the second effect of institutionalisation
In Rutter’s study-most children showed signs of intellectual disability when arrived in Britain
>Damage to intellectual development as result of institutionalisation can be recovered provides adoption takes place before 6 months
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Rutters research has Real world application in caresystem
Strength
Studying Romanian orphanages improved understanding of effects of early institutional care
>Led to improvements in way children are looked after in care system
>Now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child, instead now have 2 key workers who play central role in emotional care
>means children in institutional care have chance to develop normal, attachments & avoid disinhibited attachments
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Romanian orphan studies-Social sensitivity
Limitation
Romanian Orphan studies are socially sensitive
* As the results show that late-adopted children have poor development outcomes.
* Results have been published while the children have been growing up ,
* means their parents, teachers who knew them may lower their expectations & treated the adopted children differently - creates SFP
A03
Rutters study-low ecological validity-condtions in that orphanage were poor
Limitation
- Findings from Rutter’s study have low ecological validity
- As the conditions of Romanian orphanages were very poor.
E.g, the orphanages did not provide any intellectual stimulation for the orphans, which may have had a larger impact on their intellectual development compared to MD as a single cause. - Cases of abuse were also frequently reported.
Since the average orphanage would have better conditions,
suggests findings cannot be generalised beyond research setting they were found in.
Ecological validity-ability to generalize findings to real-world setting
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Ethical issues- Rutter et al
Limitation
A Potential issue with Rutter ERA study is that children were not randomly assigned to adoption , but were selected by new parents in romania, its possible this resulted in bias where children adopted early may have been more socially desireable ones , confounding variable
