Romanian Orphan Studies: Institutionalisation Flashcards
What was the procedure of Rutter et Al’s research?
- Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans as part of the English and Romanian adoptee study.
- Orphans were adopted by UK families.
What was the aim of the ERA study?
To investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.
What type of developments were assessed and at what ages were these assessed?
- Physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed.
- Ages 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years.
What was the control group?
A group of 52 children from the UK adopted at the same time.
When the orphans first arrived what did half of them show?
Delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely undernourished.
At 11 what did the adopted children show?
Differential rates of recovery related to the age of their adoption.
What was the mean IQ of those adopted before six months compared with those adopted between 6 moths and 2 and after 2 years?
- Before 6 months = 102.
- Between 6 months and 2 = 86
- After 2 years = 77.
- Differences remained at age 16.
What was more common in 15 and 22-25 year olds?
ADHD.
What did those adopted after 6 months show signs of?
Disinhibited attachment - attention-seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards adults both familiar and unfamiliar.
What did those adopted before 6 months rarely show?
Disinhibited attachment.
What did Zeanah et al conduct?
A study which assessed the attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care.
What was the control group in Zeanah et Al’s study?
50 children who never lived in an institution.
How did Zeanah et al measure attachment types?
Using the strange situation and asking carers about unusual social behaviour including clingy, attention seeking behaviour directed inappropriately at all adults.
What did Zeanah find?
- 74% of the control group were securely attached.
- 19% of the institutional group were securely attached.
- The description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to less than 20% of control groups.
Effects of institutionalisation?
- Disinhibited attachment
- Intellectual disability
Disinhibited attachment
- Children are equally friendly and affectionate towards familiar people and strangers.
- Rutter - an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period.
Intellectual disability
- Damage to intellectual development can be recovered if adoption occurs before 6 months (the age attachment forms).
Evaluation: real world application
- Studying Romanian orphans has improved psychologists understanding of the effects of early institutional care and how to prevent the worst effects.
- Led to improvements in conditions experienced by looked after children.
- E.g. having a few carers instead of many.
- Institutionalised children have more of a chance to develop normal attachments.
Evaluation: Lack of confounding variables in the Romanian orphans study
- Children in the study were handed over by loving parents who couldn’t afford to keep them rather than the children having experienced earlier trauma like in WW2.
- Results less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences (high internal validity)
Evaluation: lack of data on adult development
- Latest data looked at children in their early-mid 20s.
- We dont have data to answer what the long term effects of early institutional care is.
- This will take a long time because the study is longitudinal.
- It will take some time before we completely know what the long-term effects are for Romanian orphans.
Evaluation: socially sensitive research
- Results show late adopted children have poor developmental outcomes.
- Results have been published whilst children are growing up which means parents, teachers and anyone else who knows them might have a lowered expectation of them and treat the adopted children differently.
- This can create a SFP.
