Romanian orphan studies:Effects of institutionalisation -A-Level Psychology

Institutionalisation- the effect of institutional care. In relation to child development can be seen as  how time in an institution e.g an orphanage can affect the development of a child.Effects include social,mental and physical  underdevelopment. Some of these effects may be irreversible.

Research on maternal deprivation has led to orphan studies which show the effects of deprivation.

A former president of Romania required Romanian women to have 5 children,many romanian parents couldn’t afford to look after their children and these children ended up in huge orphanages with poor conditions.After the 1989 revolution,the children were adopted ,some by  british families .

Rutter’s ERA study:

Procedure-Rutter and colleagues (2011) studied a group of 165 Romanian orphans(111 adopted before the age of 2,54 adopted before the age of 4) adopted in Britain to test to what extent  good care could make up for the poor early experiences in institutions.Physical,cognitive and emotional development were tested ages 4,6,11 and 15 years.A control group of 52 British children adopted before the age of 6 months was studied and used for comparison.Information was also collected from interviews with parents and teachers.

Findings-At the time of adoption the Romanian orphans were behind their British counterparts on all measures of physical,cognitive and social development.They were smaller,weighed less and classed as mentally retarded.By the age of 4 some of the romanain orphans had caught up.This was true for almost all of the romanian children adopted before the age of 6 months.

Follow ups confirmed that the significant effects remain in the substantial minority of individuals who experienced institutional care beyond the age of 6 months.Many of the children adopted after 6 months exhibited disinhibited attachments and had problems with peer relationships.

This suggests that long term consequences may be less severe than what was once thought if children have the opportunity to form attachments.However,when children fail to form attachments,then the consequences are likely to be severe.

The Bucharest early intervention project:

Procedure-Zeanah et al(2005) assessed attachment in 95 children ages 12-31 months who has spent 90% of their lives in institutional care.They were compared to 50 children who had never lived in an institution.Their attachment type was measured through the strange situation.Carers were asked about unusual social behaviour(disinhibited attachment).

Findings-74% of the control group were securely attached.Only 19% of the other children were securely attached,65% were classified with disorganised attachment.44% of institutionalised children had  disinhibited attachment compared to less than 20% of the control group.

Effects of institutionalisation:

Physical underdevelopment-children in institutional care are usually physically small.Gardner(1972) said that lack of emotional care rather than poor nourishment causes deprivation dwarfism.

Mental retardation-In Rutter’s study the children were assessed as mentally retarded when they first arrived in Britian.Those adopted before the age of 6 months caught up by the age of 4.This suggest that emotional development and damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalisation can be recovered if adoption takes place before the age of 6 months.

Disinhibited attachment-a form of insecure attachment where children do not discriminate between people they choose as attachment figures.Such children are equally friendly to those who they know as well as strangers.This is unusual behaviour.

Evaluation:

Individual differences-Some children who experienced institutionalisation were not as strongly affected as others.Rutter has suggested that this may be because they received special attention in the institutions,perhaps because they smiled more,so had some early attachment experiences.

The romanian orphanages were not typical-They had particularly poor standards of care especially when it came to forming any relationships with children,and extremely low levels of intellectual stimulation.It is possible that the conditions were so bad that the results of the study are not generalisable as other institutions may have better quality care.

Real life application-Studying the romanian orphans has enhanced the understanding on the effects of institutionalisation.These have led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions.They use key workers which allows the child to develop an attachment and avoid disinhibited attachment.

The long term effects aren’t clear yet-The studied have followed up fostered and adopted children in their mid teens and found some lasting effects of early experience.However,it is too soon to say if these are short or long term effects.It may be that those children who spent more time in institutions may catch up intellectually and improve their attachments when they are adults and early adopted children who have no issues now may develop issues when they’re adults.