Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation and romanian orphan study

seperation

separating an infant from a caregiver

deprivation

occurs when a child has formed an important attachment but is then separated from the major attachment figure and this separation has caused some bond disruption: separation plus the disruption or loss of attachment. This could occur when a parent dies or a divorce happens.

bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis

• Bowlby believed that emotional care (having an attachment) was as important for development as physical care.

• Bowlby argued that breaking the maternal bond with the child during early years likely to have serious effects on its intellectual, social & emotional development.

• He argued that the child would have difficulty forming relationships with other people and would be at risk of developing behavioural disorders.
  Bowlby claimed these effects were irreversible & permanent.
  He went so far as to say that a child who is denied maternal care because of frequent and/or prolonged separation would become emotionally disturbed if this happens before the age of about 2.5 years and if there is no mother-substitute avanable. He felt there was a continuing risk up until about 5

bowlby’s key study

This theory is based on his supporting study of 44 thieves (1944). Bowlby conducted research with 88 clients (aged from 5 to 16) from the child guidance clinic where he worked. 44 of the children had been referred to the clinic because of stealing. Bowlby identified 14 of these children as affectionless psychopaths, because they appeared to have little sense of social responsibility & showed no guilt & remorse for their crimes (they lacked a social conscience). Other children who had not been referred for crimes acted as a control group. Bowlby interviewed the children & their families and built up a picture of their early life experience. He found that 86% of those thieves diagnosed as affectionless psychopaths had experienced frequently early separations from their mothers (due to stays in foster homes or hospitals), whereas very few of the non-psychopath thieves (17%) and almost none of the controls had experienced such separation. This led Bowlby to conclude that early separation affected later emotional development.

bowlby’s key study evaluation summary

• important applications

• retrospective data

• Rutter

• socially sensitive

• sensitive period

bowlby’s key study evaluation - important applications

Bowlby's theory has had many important applications. It gave rise to a positive change in infant care. Before this theory only physical care was considered important. The theory led to orphanage care being improved to take account of emotional needs including trying to keep children in one foster home. Also provisions were made for parents to stay in hospital with young children & longer visiting hours allowed.

bowlby’s key study evaluation - retrospective data

• However, there are criticisms of Bowlby's 44 thieves research. The data collection is retrospective (i.e. the children and their parents had to think back many years to the child's younger days). This can produce inaccuracies. In addition, there is a potential for Researcher bias- Bowlby conducted all aspects himself and diagnosed children as affectionless psychopaths. As the study was conducted to test his theory there could have been expectancy effects.

bowlby’s key study evaluation - Rutter

• Rutter (1981) claimed the fact that early separation & later readjustment are linked does not mean that one caused the other. Instead he claimed that it is the situation surrounding the deprivation, not necessarily the separation itself, that leads to problems. E.g. for deprivation caused by parental divorce it may be the stress surrounding the divorce that is the problem. To test this he carried out his own study of young boys (the Isle of Wight study). Over 2000 boys between the age of 9 & 11 were interviewed & so were their families. It was found that:

• if separation was due to physical illness or death of the mother then there was no correlation with delinquency

• if separation were due to psychiatric illness or discord within the family then the boys were 4 times more likely to become delinquent. This suggests that it is mainly family discord rather than separation as such that causes the difficulties & maladjustment

bowlby’s key study evaluation - socially sensitive

Bowlby's work has also been criticised as it is suggested that the time the research was done it was just after war time and during the war women had assumed male jobs. It is suggested that perhaps Bowlby's theories were used to make women stay at home with their children to free up the workplace for the returning men. Therefore, Bowlby's research is socially sensitive.

bowlby’s key study evaluation - sensitive period

Bowlby's idea of a critical period has been challenged. For example, some studies have shown that with extra effort children can recover - now it is called a sensitive period rather than a critical one.

bowlby’s key study conclusion

Important that we should consider why some children recover from their effects and this is where the focus should be. Rutter tried to change the emphasis of Bowlby's theory rather than reject it completely. He argues that maternal deprivation should be classed as a vulnerability factor rather than a definite sign of future maladjustment.

Institutionalisation

refers to children brought up in care homes such as orphanages. They are unlikely to have any contact with family members. Institutionalisation causes privation

privation

the failure to form an attachment. Studies have investigated the effects of institutional care.

Romanian orphanage study

Rutter et al. (2007)

P - On-going longitudinal study, comparing Romanian orphans who were adopted by UK families with 52 UK-born adoptees who were placed with UK families before they were six months of age.

The Romanian adoptees entered the orphanage as small babies between one and two weeks old. Conditions in the institutions were very poor. Romanian children showed evidence of severe malnourishment. They were in the bottom third of the population for weight and head size.

Of the Romanian orphans 58 babies were adopted before they were 6 months old, 59 were adopted between 6 and 24 months of age.

Some of the children have been followed up at ages four, six and eleven years, using a range of measures including interviews, observations of the child's behaviour, and teacher/ peer reports.

Summary of procedure: three groups for comparison:

1. UK born adoptees (control group)

2. Romanian adoptees, adopted before 6 months

3. Romanian adoptees, adopted after 6 months

Romanian orphanage study findings

IQ

At age four: when Romanian orphans first arrived they showed evidence of severe cognitive deficiency and were severely malnourished. Most of the children adopted before 6 months caught up with the UK born adoptees in size and cognitive ability by age 4. Those adopted after 6 months had on-going deficits.

At age eleven: differences in IQ persisted: adopted before 6 months mean IQ was 102, if after 6 months mean IQ was 86.

Attachment:

At age six: There was a difference depending on whether Romanian children were adopted before or after 6 months. Rutter et al. found evidence of disinhibited attachment which they defined as 'a pattern of attention seeking behaviours with a relative lack of selectivity in social relationships'. Children showing this attachment type would be more likely to go off with strangers and make inappropriate contact with strangers e.g. sit on knee, hold hand, cuddle them. This was far more likely in those adopted after 6 months.

Strong disinhibition:

UK adoptees - 3.8%

Romanian adopted (before 6 month: - 8.9%

Romanian adopted (6-24 months) - 26.1%

This suggests that disinhibited attachments are more likely in children who have experienced longer periods in institutions, and more likely in those who experienced the privation of Romanian orphanages compared with UK adoptees.

At age 11: The disinhibited behaviour pattern persisted in many of the adoptees.

Romanian orphanage study conclusion

Rutter concluded that for some, the effects of living in an institution and not forming attachments within Bowlby's critical period could be long term, particularly in late adoptees. But the effects of institutionalisation can be reduced with extra effort and with early adoption.

The key findings seem to be that institutionalisation and the subsequent privation is a vulnerability factor. If suitable effort is put in to support the chid, then the effects can be minimised.

Romanian orphanage study evaluation summary

• triangulation

• positive implications

• longitudinal study

• natural experiment

Romanian orphanage study evaluation - triangulation

A strength of this study is that it is carried out over a long period of time and uses a range of measures to assess the children's behaviour, including semi-structured interviews, observations, teacher/peer reports. The use of different methods provides a rich and detailed picture of the adoptees functioning in different areas of their development in the long term. This provides both qualitative and quantitative data, using different research methods helps to overcome the weaknesses of other methods - this is called Triangulation.

Romanian orphanage study evaluation - positive implications

A strength of the research is that it has positive implications. Today most babies are adopted within the first week of birth and research shows that adoptive mothers and children are just as securely attached as non-adoptive families. The research also led to changes in Institutions around the world, for example they now offer more emotional care and a higher child to staff ratio.

Romanian orphanage study evaluation - longitudinal study

One of the problems of this research is that it is a longitudinal study. This research method has problems such as people dropping out of the study as it lasts many years. This is called attrition. It is likely that particular types of people are more likely to drop out, this will cause bias in the sample. In this case it is possible that more troubled children dropped out. Therefore, the true effects of privation may never be known as the children with the biggest problems are no longer being studied

Romanian orphanage study evaluation - natural experiment

This is a natural experiment (as the Ps would have been adopted even if they had not been in the study). As the IV is naturally occurring & the study takes place in a natural environment we cannot infer cause and effect. This means that it may not be institutionalisation alone which is causing the effect of disinhibited attachment especially as some of the Romanian children developed normal attachments (even if they were adopted after 6 months). This means that other factors must play a role in attachment e.g.:

• The temperament hypothesis would argue that innate personality characteristics cause attachment type which can explain the individual differences in each group.

• In fact, Rutter suggested that it could be that those children who smile more get more attention in the orphanage and therefore may have some early attachment experiences and consequently have normal attachments as they get older.

  • It could also be the environment in the adoptive home that will determine the attachment type shown throughout childhood. For example, how responsive and sensitive adoptive parents are to the child.