~The BEIP Flashcards
What does BEIP stand for?
The Bucharest Early Intervention Project
What is the BEIP?
The BEIP is the first and only randomized controlled trial comparing child outcomes of institutional care (orphanage) vs. foster care
How did the Controlled trial work?
Half of the children were randomly assigned to stay in the orphanage (care-as-usual), and the other half were assigned to be in a foster home, to see if there were any differences that resulted from children growing up in those different contexts
Why was the BEIP done?
At the time of the start of this project, there was not a clear consensus of what the best place was for children who didn’t have an existing family
What was the Control/Comparison Group in the BEIP?
The children who had never been institutionalized, these kids had been raised by their families from birth
Children in the BEIP were followed ___ into their teen years
longitudinally
What does it mean to Externalize symptoms?
Turning internal strife or frustration outward
What are examples of Externalizing symptoms?
Aggression, emotional outbursts, violence, & stealing
What does it mean to Internalize problems?
Taking difficulties and turning them inward against yourself
What are examples of Internalizing symptoms?
Depression, anxiety, self-recrimination
What were some of the comparison functions used from the Control group?
Using the never-institutionalized kids depression, anxiety, and aggression levels as the baseline level that you might expect in the population to compare against the Orphanage and Foster kids levels
What levels of Internalizing symptoms did the Stable Foster Kids show?
Stable Foster Care kids had a similar level of Internalizing Symptoms as the never-institutionalized group, so their anxiety and depression was low
What levels of Externalizing symptoms did the Stable Foster Kids show?
Stable Foster Care kids showed slightly higher levels of Externalizing Symptoms like aggression and outbursts, but not dramatically higher
What did the Stable Foster Kids level of External and Internalized symptoms show?
This points to the basic finding of the BEIP, which is that even after living the first years of your life in severe deprivation, and in an institutional setting that is not quite equipped to care for young children, you can still do quite well, and come out with reasonably good mental health if you are placed into a stable and supportive home, and go on to be raised in that setting
What levels of Internalizing & Externalizing symptoms did the Disrupted Foster-Care Kids show?
The Disrupted Foster-Care Kids show higher rates of mental health symptoms both Externally and Internally than the Stable Foster-Care Kids
Which group showed the highest rates of Externalizing symptoms?
The Care-As-Usual showed the highest rates of Externalizing Symptoms, and comparable rates of Internalizing Symptoms to the Disrupted Foster-Care Kids
The Care-As-Usual kids experienced more ___ than the Disrupted Foster-Care Kids
stability
As we move from Care-As-Usual → Disrupted Foster-Care → Stable Foster-Care → Never Institutionalized, we see a steady ___ in Externalizing Symptoms
decline
What does the BEIP prove about children in institutional care?
Being removed from the institution and placed into a stable home setting can help kids overcome some of the early difficulties they may have experienced as a result of growing up in these deprived orphanage settings.
Even when you improve the quality of the institution, it is still ideal for children to be raised in a home-based setting
Before the BEIP was performed, how many of the institutionalized children showed a pattern of Disorganized Attachment?
The majority of institutionalized children showed a pattern of disorganized attachment
Before the BEIP was performed, how many of the institutionalized children showed fully-formed attachment behaviours?
Only 3% showed fully-formed attachment behaviours
It was expected that no matter how difficult the environment, the kid will develop some kind of ___.
attachment behaviour
What did researchers find when rating the institutionalized children’s level of age-appropriate attachment pre-BEIP?
Only 3% of the Institutionalized group got the 5/5 score, the vast majority showed Absent Attachment behaviours or underdeveloped attachment behaviours.
When they looked at that in the Never-Institutionalized Kids, every single one of them got a 5/5, for fully developed, age-appropriate attachment behaviours
What did researchers find when measuring the children’s attachment 42 months after the Random Assignment?
- The institutional, Care-As-Usual group is at about 18% secure attachment.
- The Foster Group was showing nearly 50% secure attachment
What is the association between age and removal from the orphanage?
There are even higher rates of secure attachment among the kids who were removed from the orphanage before they were 24 months old. So the younger they were removed, the better their outcomes seemed to be
Were kids who were removed after 24 months still able to form Secure Attachments?
The kids who were removed after 24 months, many of them were still able to form secure attachments, but it was not quite as common, and didn’t tend to be quite as dramatic in improvement as their peers who were younger upon removal
What is a Critical Period?
The idea that there is a window during which you need to have exposure to certain stimuli or certain other environmental experiences, and if you don’t get that experience within that window, then the skill in question never develops
What is an example of a Critical Period?
Visual Acuity
What is a Sensitive Period?
A window of opportunity during which children are particularly equipped to learn and develop through environmental stimuli
Is there a strict window for a Sensitive Period?
In a Sensitive Period there is no distinct window. Sensitive periods are just times where we are best equipped to learn from our experience, best prepared to take advantage of the brain plasticity in young kids
