Romanian orphan studies (Rutter): Effects of Institutionalisation Flashcards
what is Institutionalisation
Institutionalisation concerns the effects upon attachments of care provided by orphanages and residential children’s homes.
what does Institutionalisation not provide
Institutional care does not adequately provide the level of positive individual attention and emotional care from consistent caregivers, which is essential for the successful emotional, physical, mental, and social development of children.
who has seen to be most affected by institutionalised care
This is profoundly relevant for children under 3 years of age for whom institutional care has been shown to be especially damaging.
what does Institutional care involve
Institutional care involves distinctive patterns of attachment behaviour and often involves a mix of privation and deprivation effects.
Context: Romanian Orphans
In 1966 the Romanian government, under the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, tried to boost the population of Romania by encouraging parents to have large families and also by banning abortion.
The consequence of this was that many babies could not be cared for by their families.
When the regime collapsed in 1989, the Western world became aware of the plight of the orphans in institutional care in Romania.
There were more than 100,000 orphans in 600 state-run orphanages.
The children spent their days alone in cribs with very little stimulation - cognitive or emotional. They were malnourished and uncared for.
Many were adopted by Western families.
What were conditions like in the orphanages?
Although there were variations among institutions, the variation was from poor to abysmal, with none providing good conditions:
- Staffing levels were very low (about 1 staff per 30 children)
- There were virtually no toys or educational activities
- Staff-child interaction and communication was minimal
- Feeding was mainly by means of propped up bottles with large teats
- Washing involved being hosed down with cold water
what were the attachment types
Disinhibited attachment: Clingy, attention-seeking behaviour and indiscriminate sociability to adults (equally friendly and affectionate to people they know well or strangers).
Disorganised attachment: Inconsistent behaviour, confusion and indecision (a mixture of approach and avoidance behaviours), demonstrated in research by Zeanah et al. (2005).
what were the cognitive effects
Intellectual disability
Low IQ
what were the physical effects
Poor physical development – restricted growth. The production of hormones, such as growth hormones, are affected by the severe emotional disturbance (rather than poor nourishment) resulting in physical underdevelopment (or ‘deprivation dwarfism’).
what were the effects on parenting
Quinton et al. (1984) – Followed a group of women who had been reared in institutions. These ex-institutional women experienced extreme difficulties when they became parents – for example, their children were more frequently in care and the women were less sensitive, less supportive and less warm with their children than a control group of non-institutionalised women who were also observed.
what were the effects on relationships later in life
Impaired adult relationships – individuals might struggle to form or maintain peer or romantic relationships due to a lack of a/poor/negative internal working model.
what was the aim of Rutter et al. (1998)’s study
To assess whether loving and nurturing care could reverse the effects of privation the children had suffered in Romanian orphanages.
what was the procedure of Rutter et al. (1998)’s study
The participants were 111 Romanian orphans
It was a longitudinal study, incorporating a quasi-experiment
The IV was the age of adoption, with three conditions:
Condition 1: Children adopted before the age of 6 months
Condition 2: Children adopted between 6 months and 2 years
Condition 3: Children adopted after 2 years (before 42 months)
The DV was the children’s level of cognitive functioning
The orphans were initially assessed for height, head circumference and cognitive functioning on arrival in Britain. All children were again assessed at age 4, using a combination of parental reports, direct observations, and psychometric assessments.
A control group of 52 non-institutionalised British children adopted before 6 months were also assessed (to ascertain whether negative effects were due to separation from carers or the institutional conditions in Romanian orphanages).
what were the findings of Rutter et al. (1998)’s study
~50% of the Romanian orphans were found to have deficits in their cognitive functioning at initial assessment and most were underweight. The control group did not show these deficits.
The catch-up in both physical growth and cognitive level appeared nearly complete at 4 years for those children who came to the UK before the age of 6 months – they were doing as well as the British adopted children. The developmental catch-up was also impressive, but not complete, in those placed after 6 months of age.
what were the conclusion of Rutter et al. (1998)’s study
The negative effects of institutionalisation can be overcome by sensitive, nurturing care.
However, age at adoption was negatively correlated with attainment of developmental milestones i.e. the later the children were adopted, the slower their progress – the longer children experience emotional deprivation, the longer it will take them to recover, but recovery is possible.
As the British adopted children (who had been separated from their mothers) did not suffer developmental outcomes, it can be seen that separation from carers will not on its own cause negative developmental effects.
The marked improvement in functioning amongst the Romanian orphans following entry to the UK adoptive families provided good evidence that the initial deficits were due to some aspect of the institutional deprivation that they had experienced.
