Romanian Orphan Studies: Institutionalisation

Question 1

Outline Rutter et al’s study on the effects of institutionalisation.

Answer 1

-conducted a longitudinal study in which he studied 165 romanian orphans at ages 4, 6 and 11.

• studied the orphans in terms of psychological, emotional and physical development - results compared to 50 children adopted in britain.
• found mean iq for children adopted before 6 months was 102 whereas those adopted after 6 months was 86.
  children adopted after 6 months displayed signs of disinhibited attachments (hard to form attachments).
  children adopted before 6 months displayed signs of normal attachments.
  concluded that recovery from the effects of institutionalisation could only be made if children were adopted before 6 months.

Question 2

Outline Zenah et al’s study.

Answer 2

assessed attachment in 95 romanian children aged 12-31 months.
romanian orphans compared to control group of 50 children who had never been in institutional care.
attachment type measure using the strange situation.
found 74 percent had secure attachments in the control group compared to 19 percent of the orphans.
20 percent of the control group had disinhibited attachments compared to 44 percent of the orphans.

Question 3

Give one strength of research into the effects of institutionalisation.

Answer 3

research into the effects of institutionalisation has enhanced our understanding and as a result we have now changed the way in which children are looked after.

for example, research has shown that children such as the romanian orphans develop disinhibited attachments due to being given multiple caregivers. some children had around 50. from this evidence we can conclude that a child should only have one or two key workers and no more. this can be applied to different care homes for children and will allow them to develop normal attachments.

Question 4

Give 2 limitations of research into the effects of institutionalisation

Answer 4

1. rutters study has very low ecological validity as the conditions the romanian orphans lived in were extremely unusual.

for example, the orphanages did not provide any intellectual stimulation for the children such as books and toys - this would have had a larger impact on their intellectual development compared to maternal deprivation as a single cause.

average orphanages would have better conditions and so findings cannot be generalsied beyond the research setting they were found in.

2. a key methodological issue with rutters study is the focus on short-term recovery.
   for example, just because a child adopted at 3 years old does not exhibit normal intellectual development at age 4, this does not mean they are never going to develop properly they may achieve normal development at a later point in their life.
   rutter should have therefore carried out his study on a larger time scale to obtain valid results and draw accurate conclusions.