ROMANIAN ORPHANS: EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONALISATION

Question 1

Institutionalisation

Answer 1

A term for the effect of living in an institutional setting e.g. orphanage

Question 2

Disinhibited attachment

Answer 2

• A type of insecure attachment where children do not form close attachments Children treat strangers with inappropriate familiarity and may be attention - seeking

Question 3

Disorganised attachment

Answer 3

• Lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour ; signs of strong attachment behaviour , then avoidance and fear

Question 4

what was rutter et al’s aim?

Answer 4

• examine long-term effects of institutionalisation in a longitudinal study, began in early 1990s called the english and romanian adoptees,
• aim to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions

Question 5

what was rutter et al’s procedure?

Answer 5

• 165 children who has spent early years in romanian orphanage adopted into a uk family
• compared to control of 52 british children
• social cognitive and physical development of all infants examined at regular intervals and interviews conducted with adoptive parents and teachers

Question 5

what was rutter et al’s results?

Answer 5

• when arriving in uk, showed delayed development in all elements of social, cognitive weighed less and intellectually delayed at 11 recovery rates were related to adoption.
• before 6 months adopted caught up with these measures, mean iq 102.
• Those adopted after 2 years had mean IQ of 77

Question 6

what was rutter et als conclusion?

Answer 6

• institutionalisation has severe long-term effects,on development, especially in children not provided with adequate emotional caregiving
• however long-term consequences may be less severe than was once thought if children have the opportunity to form attachments

Question 7

what was zeanah et als aim?

Answer 7

investigate attachment types of children who had spent most of their life in institutional care

Question 8

What was Zeanah et al’s procedure?

Answer 8

• Used strange situations to assess attachment in 95 Romanian children ages 12-31 months who had spent most of their time in institutionalised care.
• compared to control of 50 Romanian children never institutionalised.

Question 9

what were zeanah et al’s results?

Answer 9

• Only 19% of institutionalised children were securely attached. (74% of control)
• 44% of the institutionalised group had characteristics of disnhibited attachment (20% of controls)

Question 10

what was zeanah et al’s conclusion?

Answer 10

• infants who spend early years in institutional care, with absence of primary attachment figure to provide consistent and sensitive emotional
• caregiving are less likely to develop a secure attachment and more likely to experience disinhibited attachment

Question 11

intellectual disability

Answer 11

cognitive development also affected by emotional deprivation.
* This effect is minimal if adopted before 6 months.

Question 12

rutter et al strength - real world application

Answer 12

• to social services, helped change way children are looked after, infants adopted as early as one week old and are able to form secure attachments
• also helped improve conditions experienced by looked-after children, children now tend to have one or two key workers to help them develop normal attachments.
• Furthermore, it allows people to build stable relationships in later life that can help secure our internal working model

Question 13

rutter et al strength - research is longitudinal

Answer 13

• strength of rutter et aLis that it’s a longitudinal studie, assess short and long term effects, results much more valid representation of effects of being placed in institutional care as well as showing results of quality emotional caregiving

Question 14

limitation - deprivation only one factor in development

Answer 14

• many other confounding variables the orphans experienced very little mental stimulation and were malnourished, difficult to interpret results of the studies as sole effect of deprivation as there are many influences

Question 15

Lower confounding variables that other studies

Answer 15

• There were many Romanian studies before r+z Often included children who experienced trauma before being institutionalised
• Neglect, abuse etc meant it was hard to oobserve the effects of institutionalstation in isolation. The children were affected by many factors meaning cofundung variables are present

Question 16

What’s a limitation - socially sensitive

Answer 16

• Late adopted children showed signs of low IQ 70. This affects the way theyre percieved by teachers and parents.
• Might create self-fulfulling prophecy.
• On the other hand much has been learned from the Romanian orphan studied that might help benefit future institutionalised or potentially institutionalised children.
• So the benefits of the study outweigh the bad.