Romanian Orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation

What is institutionalisation?

The effects of living in an institutional setting. Institution refers to the place like a hospital or orphanage where children live for a long, continuous period of time. There is often little emotional care provided.

What are the effects of institutionalisation?

social, mental and physical underdevelopment- some of which may be irreversible

What happened in Romania that can help inform psychologists on the effects of institutionalisation?

Rutter English and Romance Adoptee study (2011): procedure

• 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test to what extent good care could make up for poor experiences in institutions

• Physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed at 4,6,11 and 15 years old and 22-25 years

• Control group – 52 British children adopted around the same time

Rutter English and Romance Adoptee study (2011): findings: intellectual developments

• When first arrived in UK half adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development

• At 11 yo the adopted children showed different rates of recovery that were related to their age of adoption (good quality aftercare):

- Mean IQ for those adopted BEFORE 6 months – 102

- Adopted between 6m – 2 yo = 86

- Adopted after 2 yo = 77

• Beckett et al (2010) found that these differences continued to be apparent at 16 years old

Rutter English and Romance Adoptee study (2011): findings: frequency of disinhibited attachment (type D)

• Equally friendly and affectionate to people they know well or who are strangers – this is unusual behaviour – 2 yo usually show stranger anxiety

• Rutter argues this is the result of adapting to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period

• The children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment

• Symptoms included attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults

• Children adopted before 6 months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment

Rutter English and Romance Adoptee study (2011): conclusions

Findings support Bowlby’s view that there is a sensitive period in the development of attachments – a failure to form an attachment before the age of 6 months appears to have long lasting effects.

Rutter English and Romance Adoptee study (2011): Evaluation

+Longitudinal study – lots of detailed information over a long period of time

-Natural experiment – IV when they were adopted - may have been other variables The adopted group may have been more socially skilled making them easier to place in adoptive families

-All children are Romanian – may not be the same for other children, so cannot generalise - lack of population validity

Zenah Bucharest Early Intervention Project: Procedure

• 95 children aged 12-31 months

• Average had spent 90% of life in institutional care

• Control group – 50 children who had never lived in an institution

• Attachment type measured using Strange situation

• carers were asked about unusual social behaviour including clingy, attention- type D

Zenah Bucharest Early Intervention Project: findings and conclusion

Type B:

• 74% of the control group were securely attached

• 19% of the institutional group were securely attached

Type D:

• Disinhibited attachment - 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to 20% of the controls

Zenah Bucharest Early Intervention Project: evaluation

+Natural experiment

-Social sensitivity - suggesting type D is not ‘good’

-Interviews with carers - retrospective and subjective

Evaluation of effects of institutionalisation: real world application

• Studying Romanian orphans has important practical applications.

Led to improvements in orphanages and care homes.

Use of key workers

Real life applications for looked after children

Avoidance of disinhibited attachment

• However, there may be issues with generalisability in Romanian studies.

Unusual situation means you cannot generalise to others (lacks external validity)

Evaluation of effects of institutionalisation: social sensitive

• suggests there implication for children in care/ adopted children

• The results show that late adopted children typically have poor development outcomes

• But research might benefit future institutionalised children