Romanian Orphans Flashcards
What is institutionalisation?
Institutionalisation is a term for the effects of living outside the family/family home in an
institutional setting. The term ‘institution’ refers to a place like a hospital or an orphanage
where children live for long, continuous periods of time. This can result in the child
adopting rules and norms of the institution and that can impair functioning.
• In such places there is often very little emotional care provided, as children living in this
situation cannot see enough of any one carer to develop an attachment with them.
• The possible effects include social, mental, and physical underdevelopment.
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Procedure of Rutters ERA
(ENGLISH ROMAN ADOPTEE)
Procedure
• In a natural experiment they followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in
Britain to assess their physical, cognitive and emotional development at ages 4,6,11 and
15 years, making this a longitudinal study.
• The independent variable was the age of adoption, with three age groups being studied:
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.
• Information was gathered by interviews with parents and teachers. Their progress was
compared to a control group of 52 British children adopted in the UK before the age of 6
months.
Findings of rutters ERA
Findings –
Effects of Institutionalisation - Intellectual delay
• When they first arrived in the UK half the Romanian adoptees showed signs of intellectual
delay. However, by the age of four most of the Romanian children adopted before the
age of six months had caught up with their British counterparts.
• At age 11 the mean IQ of those children adopted before the age of six months was 102,
compared with 86 for those adopted between six months and two years and 77 from
those adopted after two years.
• It appears that 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.
Effects of Institutionalisation - Disinhibited Attachment
• Rutter found that children who are adopted after they were six months showed signs of
a particular attachment style called disinhibited attachment. Symptoms include
attention seeking, clinginess and friendliness to any adult that is available, treating all
adults the same, and a tendency to go off with strangers. In contrast those children
adopted before the age of six months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment.
• Rutter 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 none of whom they see
enough to form a secure attachment.
Conclusion
Rutter’s findings suggest that children can recover from institutionalisation if they have
good quality care. The findings also suggest that removal from institutional care should occur
before 6 months.
Procedure of la mare and audet
- La Mare and Audet reported the findings from a longitudinal study of 36 (early
deprived post-Institutionalised) Romanian Orphans adopted to families in Canada. The 36
Romanian orphans were compared to two matched control groups, Canadian born nonadopted children and early adopted Romanian children without institutional experience. The
dependent variable in this study focused on physical growth and health. Data was collected
for each child at three time points: at 11 months post adoption, at 4.5 years of age and at
10.5 years of age.
Findings of la mare and audet
Findings –
Effects of Institutionalisation – Physical underdevelopment
The institutionalised Romanian orphans were physically smaller than the control group at
both 11 months and four and a half years. However, this difference in height and weight
amongst the Romanian orphans and the Canadian born non-adopted children and the early
adopted Romanian Children (without institutional experience) had disappeared by ten and a
half years, indicating significant growth catch up. The same was true for physical health.
Conclusion – This suggests that although the initial growth delay was caused by the depriving
circumstances of the institution, recovery from the effects of institutionalisation on physical
development is possible.
Réal Life application
A strength of the research into institutionalisation is that studying the
Romanian orphans has enhanced our understanding of the effects of institutionalisation.
Such results have led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions. For
example, orphanages and children’s homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for
each child and instead ensure that a much smaller number of people, perhaps one or two
people, play a central role for the child. This person is called a key worker. Having a key
worker means that children have a chance to develop normal attachments and help avoid
disinhibited attachment. This shows that such research has been immensely valuable in
practical terms.
What is the strength of longitudinal studies
strength of conducting longitudinal studies on Romanian
orphans is that they have followed the lives of children over many years. Such studies take
a lot of time which means a lot of planning and waiting for result, but the benefits are large.
Without such studies we may mistakenly conclude that there are major effects due to early
institutional care that are irreversible. Whereas Rutter and La Mare and Audet have shown
that the effects may disappear after sufficient time and with early intervention. Therefore,
this research strengthens the argument that recovery even after severe privation is possible
provided the children move to a loving environment. However, a common problem
associated with longitudinal research is subject attrition. This is where participants drop out
of the study and do not wish to take part. This is a limitation for Rutter’s research because
particular kinds of participants, such as those who were less well adjusted, are more likely to
be the ones that drop out. This leaves the study with a biased sample which makes the
findings difficult to generalise.
What’s the limitation with the orphans being not typical ?
Although a vast amount of useful data about
institutionalisation has come out of the Romanian orphan studies, it is possible that the
conditions were so bad that the results cannot be applied to understanding the impact of
better-quality institutional care or indeed any situations where children experience
deprivation. For example, Romanian orphanages had particularly poor standards of care,
especially when it came to forming any relationship with the children, and extremely low
levels of intellectual stimulation. Therefore, the extreme experiences of privation experienced
by the Romanian orphans means that the studies lack generalisation due to the unusual
situational variables. This questions the population validity of the Romanian orphan studies.
What is the limitation with the methodology used in rutters ERA
– One of the methodological issues for Rutter’s ERA project is that the
children were not randomly assigned to the three conditions (adopted before the age of 6
months, adopted between 6 months and 2 years, adopted after 2 years). The researcher did not interfere with the adoption process, which means that those children adopted early may have been more sociable, a confounding variable. However, it would not have been possible
to manipulate the independent variable in Rutter’s research as this would involve allocating
children to either institutional care or foster care. This would be methodologically better
because it removes the confounding variable of which children are chosen by parents;
however it raises huge ethical issues. This highlights the importance of ethical consideration
when conducting research on adopted children, due to the possible long term effects of
institutionalisation.
