Roman orphan studies: institutionalisation

Why do orphan studies occur?

To study the effects of deprivation on emotional + intellectual development

How did institutionalisation arise?

• In the 1990s, Romanian women were ordered to have 5 children

• Many could not afford to have this many

• Many ended up in huge orphanages with subhuman conditions

What was Rutter et al. (2011)’s research on institutionalisation?

• Assessed 165 Romanian orphans physically, cognitively and emotionally over their life aged 4-25, as they were adopted in the UK

• Control group of 52 children were adopted in the UK at the same time.

What was Rutter et al. (2011)’s findings?

• Half of the children showed signs of delayed intellectual development - most adopted before 6 months caught up w/ control group by 4

• Majority were severely malnourished

• Rate of recovery and IQ depended on age of adoption - IQ got lower the older the child adopted.

What other findings were there for Rutter’s study?

• Beckett et al. (2010) found that the effects remained until 16.

• Kennedy et al. (2016) found ADHD was more common

• Children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment

• Children adopted before 6 months barely showed this

What is disinhibited attachment?

Equally friendly/affectionate to familiar adults and strangers, attention-seeking and clingy

What were the effects of institutionalisation?

• Disinhibited attachment - Rutter saw it was adapting to live with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation. In poor quality institutions, a child may have 50 carers, not having enough time to form an attachment with any.

• Intellectual disability - can recover if adoption takes place before 6 months, when attachments form

How does the Romanian orphans have real-world application?

• Improved psychologists’ understanding of the effects of institutional care and how to prevent them.

• Led to improvements in institutions’ conditions

• Children now have ‘key workers’ who play a central role in their care

• More effort put into them being adopted

• Gives children in institutions the chance to develop normal attachments

Why does the Romanian orphans have high internal validity?

• Other orphan studies featured children who suffered neglect, abuse and bereavement

• The Romanian children were from loving parents who simply couldn’t afford to keep them.

• Results less likely to be confounded

Why does the Romanian orphan study lack adult data?

• Latest data was from their 20s - we do not have data that shows a long-term affect from institutional care.

• It will take a long time until we completely know the effects.

Why is the Romanian orphan study not generalisable?

The care in Romanian orphanages was of such bad quality that the results cannot be generalised to other institutions.

How are the results socially sensitive?

• Shows that late-adopted children typically have poor developmental outcomes.

• Anyone who knew the children may lower their standards and treat them differently as a result of publishing the experiment.

• Knowledge gained from study may benefit future institutionalised children, but it should have been published with careful consideration for those involved.