romanian orphan studies - institutionalisation

Question 1

rutter et al’s research

Answer 1

procedure -
- rutter and colleagues followed a group of 165 romanian orphans for many years, as part of the ERA study
- the orphans had been adopted by families in the UK
- the aim of the ERA was to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
- physical, cognitive and emotional development was assessed at ages 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years
- a group of 56 children from the UK adopted around the same time were studied as a control group

findings -
- when children first arrived in uk, half showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely undernourished
- at age 11 they showed differential rates of recovery that were related to their age of adoption
- the mean IQ of those adopted before the age of 6 months was 102, compared to 86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years, and 77 for those adopted after 2 years
- ADHD was more common in 15 and 22-25 year old samples (kennedy et al.)
- there appeared to be a difference in attachment outcome related to whether adoption took place before or after the age of 6 months
- those adopted after 6 months showed signs of a disinhibited attachment, symptoms included attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed towards all adults, whether familiar or unfamiliar
- those adopted before 6 months rarely showed signs of a disinhibited attachment

Question 2

zeanah et al’s research

Answer 2

procedure -
- bucharest early intervention project, assessed attachment in 95 romanian children age 12-31 months, who had spent around 90% of their lives in institutional care
- compared to control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution
- attachment type measured using strange situation, carers also asked about unusual social behaviour (clinginess, attention seeking etc., disinhibited attachment)

findings -
- 74% of control group classified as securely attached
- only 19% of institutional group were securely attached
- description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children in comparison to less than 20% of control

Question 3

disinhibited attachment

Answer 3

• typical effect of spending time in an institution
• equally friendly and affectionate towards both familiar people as well as strangers
• highly unusual behaviour, other children show stranger anxiety in their second year
• rutter explained this attachment as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period
• in poor quality institutions, like in romania, a child may have 50 carers but wouldn’t spend enough time with any one of them to form a secure attachment

Question 4

intellectual disability

Answer 4

• in rutter’s study, most children showed signs of intellectual disability (previously retardation) when they arrived in britain
• most of those adopted before 6 months old caught up with the control group by age 4
• damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalisation can be recovered, provided adoption take place before 6 months

Question 5

evaluation - real world application

Answer 5

• application to improve conditions for children growing up outside of their family home
• studies have improved psychologists’ understanding of effects of early institutional care and how to prevent the worst of these
• has led to improvements in the conditions experienced by looked-after children
• homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child, will tend to have 1-2 key workers
• care homes now inconsiderable, instead effort made to accommodate children in foster care or have them adopted
• children in care now have a chance to develop normal attachments, and disinhibited attachment is avoided

Question 6

evaluation - fewer confounding variables

Answer 6

• strength is the lack of confounding variables
• many orphan studies before romanian orphans became available
• many children studied in orphanages had experienced varying degrees of trauma, difficult to disentangle effects of neglect, abuse and bereavement from those of institunal care
• however Romanian children had been handed over because loving parents couldn’t afford to keep them
• results less likely to be confounded by other negative experiences
• high internal validity

Question 7

evaluation - lack of adult data

Answer 7

• limitation is current lack of data on adult development
• latest data from ERA study looked at children in early to mid 20s
• currently no data to answer questions about long-term effects of institutional care
• it would take a long time to gather this data because of the longitudinal design needed
• it will be some time before we know more about the long-term effects for the Romanian orphans, it is possible that late-adopted children may catch up