3.10 romanian orphan studies: insitutionalisation

Institutionalisation — a term for the effects of living in an institutional setting such as a hospital or orphanage where people live for long periods of time

Romanian orphan studies

  • studying the effects of institutional care on emotional and intellectual development

  • The former president required women to have 5 children, they could not afford this so many children ended up in orphanages, in very poor conditions

Rutter et al

Procedure

  • studied a group of 165 Romanian orphans for many years

  • The orphans had been adopted by families in the UK

  • The aim was to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences

  • Physical, cognitive and emotional development were assessed at ages 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25, compared to a control group of 52 children from the UK who were adopted around the same time

Findings

  • half of the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely undernourished

  • Those who were adopted before 6 months had a mean IQ of 102, those between 6 months and 2 years had a mean IQ of 86, and a mean of 77 for those adopted after 2 years

  • Found ADHD was more common in 15-25 samples

  • Found those adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment which includes attention seeking, cling lines and social behaviour directed towards indiscriminately towards all adults

Zeanah’s research

Procedure

  • used strange situation to assess the attachment of 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months

  • Compared to a control group of 50 children who had never been in an institution

  • Also asked carers about unusual behaviour such as being clingy or attention seeking

Findings

  • found 74% of the control group were classified as securely attachment, compared to 19% of the institutional group

  • Also found 44% of institutionalised children showed disinhibited attachment

Effects of institutionalisation

disinhibited attachment

  • being equally friendly and affectionate to all people

  • Rutter suggests this is an adaptation from living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period and from carers not spending enough time with them

  • So they are unable to form a secure attachment

Intellectual disability

  • Most children showed signs of intellectual disability, however most of those adopted before 6 months had caught up with the control group by age 4

  • So it can be recovered if adoption occurs before 6 months

Evaluation

Real world application

  • improved psychologists understand of the effects of institutional care and how to prevent the worse of these effects

  • This has led to improvements in the care system such as having ‘key workers’ so children don’t have a large number of caregivers. And making more effort for children to go into foster homes rather than institutions

Fewer confounding variables

  • Typically orphans have trauma and its difficult to disentangle the effects of neglect, abuse and bereavement from that of institutional care

  • However the children from Romania typically had loving parents, they use couldn’t afford to keep them

  • Counterpoint — however the quality of care in these institutions was poor, with children receiving little intellectual stimulation or comfort. So damages may be due to poor institutional care rather than institutional care itself

Lack of adult data

  • looked at the children into their early to mid 20s but did not gather data from the long-term effects such as long term mental health problems, issues forming and maintaining relationships, how they may parent

Social sensitivity

  • socially sensitive as it negatively labels late-adopted children. This may lead to parents and teachers to lower their expectations, leading to a self fulfilling prophecy

  • It also may discourage from adopting children

  • However the findings might help benefit future institutionalised children