romanain orphans

• Ritter has conducted a longitudinal study of children raised in Romanian orphaned whi had experienced severe institualisatiom characterised by poor social and emotional care

• The study found that children adopted before 6 months of age tended to show normal emotional development and cognitve whereas those after 6 months were more likely to experience long term difficulties including lower IQ and attachment disorders

  • One disorder being disinhibinted attachment where children show inappropriate friendliness towards strangers. These findings suggest the existence of a sensitive period for attachment

A03

Longitudinal study- tracking child recover many years. This allows researchers to observe long-term effects of instutionalisation increasing internal validity

However particpant may drop out over time which may cause anomaly and bias data

Therefore while findings are valuable they may not be fully representive