Romanian Orphan Study Flashcards
the fall of the communist regime in Romania during the early 1990’s allowed the world to see
the vast overcrowding of their orphanages
the orphans were
fed, clothed and looked after but lacked any form of sensitive care or any opportunity for emotional attachment
since then, various studies of Romanian orphans have enables psychologists to
look directly at the impacts of privation
studies of children raised in institutions may provide
more reliable data than case studies as sample sizes are so much bigger
Rutter et al date
2007
Rutter el al name
A longitudinal study of Romanian Orphans
Method: how many Romanian orphans took part?
111
Method: these orphans were
adopted by British families
Method: these 111 orphans that were adopted by British families were compared to
52 British orphans
Method: all the orphans were followed
over a prolonged period
Method: some of the orphans were adopted before
they were 6 months old and some where older then 6 months
Method: what ages were the children assessed?
4, 6 and 11
Results: the children that were younger then 6 months when they were adopted
had the same level of emotional development as the UK children who were adopted at the same age
Results: the Romanian orphans who were older then 6 months at adoption
showed signs of insecure attachment and social problems
Results: the UK children who were older then 6 months when they were adopted
didn’t show the same problems
Conclusion: the effects of privation can
be reversed if an attachment starts to form before the age of 6 months
Conclusion: long term effects are more permanent if
attachment doesn’t start to occur within 6 months
Conclusion: maternal deprivation on its own doesn’t cause permanent effects because
the UK adopted children had been separated but didn’t show any problems
Evaluation: the results with the older children may be due to
a lack of any stimulation in the orphanage
Evaluation: as a longitudinal study
Rutter was able to investigate the children over a long period of time
Evaluation: Because Rutter could monitor the children over a long period of time
the results provide a better insight into the long-term effects of privation
Evaluation: they collected mainly
qualitative data which, although detailed, is more difficult to create generalized laws or theories from
