Romanian Orphanages Flashcards
Define institutionalisation.
a term for the effects of living in an institutional setting.
the term institution refers to a place like a hospital or an orphanage where people live for long continuous periods of time. in such places there is often very little emotional care provided.
what is the meaning of orphan studies?
research on maternal deprivation has turned to orphan studies as a means of studying the effects of deprivation on emotional and intellectual development.
rutter et al (2001) study - aim
the longitudinal study has tested the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.
rutter et al (2001) study - procedure
the researchers have followed a group of 165 romanian orphans who experienced very poor conditions before being adopted in the UK.
physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at ages 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years.
a group of 52 children from the UK adopted around the same time have served as a control group.
rutter et al (2001) study - findings on intellectual development
half of the orphans showed delayed intellectual development when they came to the UK. at age 11 recovery rates were related to their age at adoption:
• those adopted before six months had a mean 1Q of 102.
• those adopted after two years had a mean IQ of 77.
these differences continued to be apparent at age 16 - beckett et al (2010).
rutter et al (2001) study - findings on attachment
there appeared to be a difference in outcome related to whether adoption took place before or after six months.
children adopted after they were six months showed signs of a particular attachment style called disinhibited attachment: attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar.
in contrast those children adopted before the age of six months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment.
rutter et al (2001) study - conclusions
the findings support bowlby’s view that there is a sensitive period in the development of attachments - a failure to form an attachment before the age of six months (and after the age of 2 years) appears to have long lasting effects.
zeanah et al (2005) - what was the bucharest early intervention project procedure?
the researchers used the strange situation to assess attachment in 95 romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care (90% on average).
they were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution.
zeanah et al (2005) - what was the bucharest early intervention project findings?
only 19% of the institutional group were securely attached (74% of the control group were classed as securely attached in the strange situation).
44% of the institutionalised children had characteristics of disinhibited attachment (opposed to less than 20% of the controls).
effects of institutionalisation - disinhibited attachment
children who have spent their early lives in an institution often show signs of disinhibited attachment, being equally friendly and affectionate towards familiar people and strangers.
this is highly unusual behaviour - most children in their second year show stranger anxiety.
how did rutter (2006) explain disinhibited attachment?
explained disinhibited attachment as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation.
in poor quality institutions (like those in romania) a child might have 50 carers but does not spend enough time with any one of them to be able to form a secure attachment.
effects of institutionalisation - intellectual disability
in rutter’s study most children showed signs of intellectual disability when they arrived in britain. however most of those adopted before they were six months old caught up with the control group by age four.
so it appears that (like emotional development) damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalisation can be recovered provided adoption takes place before the age of six months - the age at which attachments form.
strength - real world application
One strength of the Romanian orphanage studies is their application to improve conditions for children growing up outside their family home.
Studying the Romanian orphans has improved psychologists’ understanding of the effects of early institutional care and how to prevent the worst of these effects (Langton 2006).
This has led to improvements in the conditions experienced by looked-after children, i.e. children growing up in the care system.
For example children’s homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child.
Instead the children tend to have one or two ‘key workers’ who play a central role in their emotional care. Also institutional care is now seen as an undesirable option for looked-after children.
Considerable effort is made to accommodate such children in foster care or to have them adopted instead.
This means that children in institutional care have a chance to develop normal attachments and disinhibited attachment is avoided.
