Romaniom Orphan studies: Effects of Institutionalisation Flashcards
What is institutionalisation?
-a term for the effects of living outside the family/family home in an institutional setting.
- 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 (institutions) what is there often very little of?
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.
What are the possible effects of institutionalisation?
The possible effects include social, mental, and physical underdevelopment
What is the romanian orphan study?
Rutter english and romanian adoptee
What was the aim?
–To investigate to what extent loving and nurturing care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
What was the 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.
-IV: age of adoption, with three age groups being studied: condition 1: children adopted before the 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.
What were the effects of institutionalisation?
Intellectual delay
Disinhibited attachment
What happened when the orphans 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 theage of six months had caught up with their British counterparts.
What happened at age 11?
• 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.
What did rutter find that children who are adopted after they were 6 months showed signs of?
disinhibited attachment
What do symptoms of disinhibited attachment 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.
what did rutter explain disinhibited? attachment as
-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
What was rutter’s 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.
