effects of institutionalism and englisha and romanian adoptees project

What did the Romanian civil war provide?

A tragic opportunity to study the effects of deprivation on a large number of children who were orphaned during the war in the 1990s

Why were so many children orphaned in Romania 1900s

Romania women were required by law to have at least 5 children which meant that a larger than normal number of children were orphaned when parents killed fighting in rebellion

What country did many orphans find homes?

UK

Who was one of the key researchers who investigated the impact of spending an extended period in an orphanage

Michael Rutter

What type of study did Rutter do>

Longitudinal

What did Rutter investigate

Investigated the impact of being in an institution on Romanian children who were adopted by UK families and compared them to a control group of 52 UK children who were adopted around the same time.

What did Rutter assessed the orphans who had been adopted by British families for?

Physical and cognitive development at ages 6/15/4/11

The orphans had been adopted at different ages - what ages?

One group were adopted before 6 months old

One group adopted between 6 months and 2 years

Third group adopted after 2 years

What did Rutter find about age 4 orphans? How many were behind in cognitive functioning? Who were the group of orphans that made the best progress?

We’re on average smaller than British orphans which could be linked to deprivation dwarfism

50% were behind in cognitive functioning

Harder to make friend with others

Group of Romanian orphans who made the best progress were those adopted before the age of 6 months and there wa no difference between this group and the British adopted children

At age 11 who struggled with friendship the most and what was the impact of those infants who had spent long time in institution

Those adopted before age of 6 months were similar to the British adoptees

Children adopted after 6 months had lowest cognitive ability +struggled with friendship the most

Infants who spent an exceedingly long time in institution had the most severely affected cognitive and social development

What did Rutter find when he collected more observations and interviews with the orphans when they wee ——years old

When orphans were 22-25 years old

Found orphans adopted after 6 months of - more likely to suffer from ADHD and have lower IQ scores

Group adopted 2+ years had most profound difficulties

What else did Rutter report on a specific attachment?

Damage to attachment typ as there was a greater number of children with disinhibited atttachment in the adopted after 6 months and 2 years groups.

Disinhibited attachment is particularly damaged type of attachment where child shows attention seeking and clinginess to any adult both familiar and unfamiliar

What study supports disinhibited attachment

ZEANAH used strange situation to assess attachment of 95 ROMANIAN CHILDREN aged 12-31 months who had spent 90% of lives in an institution and compared them to children who had never been in an institution

I.c showed disinhibited attachment

What did Le Mare and AUDET study with 36 Romanian orphans

Studied what happened to 36 Romanian orphans adopted by couples in CANADA

Although r.o were physically smaller than Canadian children at 4.5 years old

Found by 10.5 years old the differences had disappeared

SUGGESTS CHILDREN CAN OVERCOME SOME OF PHYSICAL ISSUES OF INSTITUTIONALISM

What is the strength of Rutters research?

Real world study

High ecological validity

It would be unethical to study privation of children in lab so its a tragic situation that offers an effective way to study privation ethically.

What is the main thing Rutters research highlight?

Damage that institutional care can cause an increase in the likelihood of governments seeking to use foster care where PAF care is substituted by foster parents

Changes in law mean there is a minimum number of adults per child in all care settings which has meant better care standards can be met

What are the effects of institutionalism

Poor parenting

Disinhibited attachment

Attachment disorder

Deprivation dwarfism

Explain how poor parenting is an effect and what is a study that supports this

People who suffered from privation struggle to be good parents

Difficult to form close bonds

Children also most likely to suffer from privation

Creates cycle of privation where poor attachment is cycled

QUINTON - women who grew up in institutions had extreme trouble parenting compared to control group from genpop

Explain ho disinhibited attachment is an effect

Children who suffer from privation are much more likely to show disinhibited attachment

Explain how attachment disorder is an effect? What are the symptoms?

*a medical condition where doctors diagnose a patient based on their life experiences and patterns of behaviour.

Symptoms

• no proffered attachment figure

• Inability to interact and relate to others that is observable before age 5

• Experience of severe neglect or frequent change of caregivers

Explain deprivation dwarfism

Child is small or size even when given enough nutrition

GARDNER suggests that a lack of emotional care causes dwarfism - corrected when care and affection are given

It’s a hormonal imbalance caused by a lack of love

What are the 2 studies for tracking IQ score

SKEELS and DYE - tracked IQ using IQ tests of children who had been placed in an orphanage and found that their IQs were extremely low

SKODAK and SKEELS - placed some children with low IQs into a home for mentally retarded

1.5 years later - IQ scores increased (64-92) for those children in a home

Increased happened due to better emotional care