Romanian Orphanage Studies (Attachment)

Question 1

Why study institutions such as orphanages?

Answer 1

• Bowlby’s theories of maternal deprivation would predict that institutional care will have permanent and irreversible effects on the psychological well being of children
• prolonged emotional deprivation can not be manipulated for ethical reasons
• there are very few institutions open today

Question 2

The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (Zeanah et al 2005) - procedure

Answer 2

• 95 children aged 2-31 months
• compared to a control group of 50 children
• attachment was measured using the strange situation
• carers were asked about unusual social behaviours such as clingy, attention-seeking behaviour directed inappropriately at all adults (disinhibited attachment)

Question 3

The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (Zeanah et al 2005)- findings

Answer 3

• 74% in the control group were securely attached
• only 19% of the experimental group were securely attached, with 65% being classified with disorganised attachment
• 44% were disinhibited attachment compared to 20% of controls

Question 4

Effects of Institutionalisation: disinhibited attachment (findings of orphanage studies)

Answer 4

-equally friendly and affectionate to people they know well or strangers
-Rutter 2006- an adaption to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation
-in some institutions they could have 50 carers and not form a secure attachment with anyone

Question 5

Mental Retardation (findings of orphanage studies)

Answer 5

-most of those adopted before six months did catch up with the control group by age 4
-intellectual development can recover if the infant is adopted before the age of 6 months

Question 6

Deprivation Dwarfism (findings of orphanage studies)

Answer 6

-children from institutions are usually physically small from lack of emotional care
-Gardner 1972 studied 8 month old girl who was never cuddled. She was physically stunted and withdrawn. With attention from hospital staff, she made a full recovery.
-emotional disturbances may affect the production of growth hormones

Question 7

Other long term effects of institutionalisation

Answer 7

• affectionless psychopaths
• delinquency
• anaclitic depression

Question 8

(Hodges and Tizard 1989-children raised in institutions) Method

Answer 8

A longitudinal study of 65 children who had been placed in a residential nursery before they were four months old.

They had not had the opportunity to form close attachments with any of their caregivers.

By the age of four, some of the children had returned to their birth mothers, some had been adopted and some had stayed at the nursery.

Question 9

(Hodges and Tizard 1989-children raised in institutions) Results

Answer 9

At age 16, the adopted group had strong family relationships although compared to a control groups of children from a ‘normal’ home environment, they had weaker peer relationships.

Those who stayed in the nursery or who returned to their mothers showed poorer relationships with family and peers than those who were adopted.

Question 10

(Hodges and Tizard 1989-children raised in institutions) Conclusion

Answer 10

Children can recover from early maternal privation if they are in a good quality, loving environment, although their social development may not be as good as children who have never suffered privation.

Question 11

(Hodges and Tizard 1989-children raised in institutions) Evaluation

Answer 11

This was a natural experiment, so it had high ecological validity

However, the sample was quite small and more than 20 of the children could not be found at the end of the study, so it is hard to generalise the results

Because lots of institutionalised children are unfortunately often underfed and malnourished with a lack of stimulation, it could be these factors that influence their behaviour, rather than the lack of attachment itself.

Question 12

(Rutter et al 1998, 2007, 2011- a longitudinal study of Romanian orphans) Method

Answer 12

165 Romanian orphans who were adopted by British families were compared with a groups of 52 UK adoptees and followed over a prolonged period.

Some of the orphans were adopted before they were 6 months old and some were older than 6 months. Each child was assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15.

Question 13

(Rutter et al 1998, 2007, 2011- a longitudinal study of Romanian orphans) Results

Answer 13

Children who were younger than 6 months when they were adopted had the same level of emotional development as other UK children who were adopted at the same age.

However, the Romanian orphans, who were older than 6 months at adoption, showed signs of insecure attachments and social problems.

The UK children who were older than 6 months at adoption did not show the same problems.

Question 14

(Rutter et al 1998, 2007, 2011- a longitudinal study of Romanian orphans) Conclusion

Answer 14

The effects of privation can be reversed if an attachment starts to form before the age of 6 months.

Long term effects are more permanent if attachment does not start to occur within 6 months.

Maternal deprivation on its own does not cause permanent effects because the UK adopted children had been separated but did not show any problems.

Question 15

(Rutter et al 1998, 2007, 2011- a longitudinal study of Romanian orphans) Evaluation

Answer 15

The results with the older children may be due to a lack of any stimulation in the orphanage.

As a longitudinal study, Rutter was able to investigate the children over a long period of time, meaning the results provided a better insight into the long term effects of privation.

However, they collected mainly qualitative data, which, although detailed, is more difficult to create generalised laws or theories from.

Question 16

Real-life application (Evaluations of the Romanian Orphan studies)

Answer 16

-langdon 2006- these studies have led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions
-key workers- children can form an attachment to one person and it helps to avoid disinhibited attachment

Question 17

Fewer extraneous variables than other orphan studies (Evaluations of the Romanian Orphan studies)

Answer 17

-studies before the Romanian Orphan study involved children who had experienced loss or trauma before they were institutionalised
-this makes it difficult to observe the effects of institutionalisation in isolation-confounding participant variables
-Romanian study had increased internal validity

Question 18

The Romanian orphanages were not typical (Evaluations of the Romanian Orphan studies)

Answer 18

-the conditions were worse than most institutions and results cannot be applied to children who experience deprivation
unusual situational variables and studies after may have lacked generalisability

Question 19

Ethical Issues (Evaluations of the Romanian Orphan studies)

Answer 19

-methodological issue- children were not randomly assigned to the conditions
-the researchers did not interfere with the adoption process, which means that those children adopted early, ma have been more sociable, a confounding variable
-the Bucharest study did use random allocation- the children were randomly allocated to institutional care or fostering

Question 20

The long term effects are not yet clear (Evaluations of the Romanian Orphan studies)

Answer 20

the studies have followed up fostered or adopted orphans into their mid teens and found lasting effects of early experience
-however, it is too soon to say with certainty whether children suffered short or long term effects
-there may be potential for later emotional problems