Romanian orphans studies: Institutionalisation

• Rutter

  • Findings- when arrived in UK, half adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and majority severely undernourished.
  • At ages of 11- different rates of recovery
  • Mean IQ of these adopted before 6 months was 102, compared with 86 for thise adopted between 6 months and 2, and 77 for those adopted after 2. 
  • Differences remained at age 16. 
  • Disinhibited attachment- adopted after 6 months, attention- seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar. 
• Rutter

  • Procedure- followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans for many years as part of English and Romanian adoptees (ERA) study.
  • Aim was to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poorly early experiences in institutions.
  • Assessed at ages: 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25
  • A group of 52 children for the UK adopted around Same time served as a control group.
• Zeanah

  • Procedure- Bucharest early intervention (BEI) project, assessing attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who spent most lives in institutional care.
  • Compared to control group of 50 children who had never lived in institution
  • Measured using SS
• Zeanah

  • Findings- found 74% of control group classed as securely attached
  • Only 19% of institutional group are securely attached.
  • Disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to less than 20% of the controls
• Effects of institutionalisation:

  • Disinhibited attachment- being equally friendly and affectionate towards familiar people and strangers- unusual as in second year usually show stranger anxiety
  • Rutter- explained it as an adaption to living with multiple caregivers during sensitive period- child might not have spent enough time with a carer to be able to form a secure attachment
• Effects of institutionalisation:

  • Intellectual disability- most adoptees from before 6 months caught uo with control group by age of 4
  • Can be recovered provided adoption takes place before the age of 6 months
• Stength: Real-world application

  • Application to improve conditions for children growing up outside their family home
  • Improvement in conditions experienced by children growing up in the care system
  • E.g. children's homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child- two or more 'key workers'
  • Means that children in institutional care have a chance to develop normal attachments and disinhibited attachment is avoided.
• Strength: Fewer confounding variables

  • Lack of confounding variables
  • Many orphan studies before Romanian orphans (ww2)- many having trauma and difficult to disentangle effecta of neglect, physical abuse.
  • But- Romanian orphans had been handed over by loving parent who could not afford to keep them
  • Means results were much less likely to be confounded by other negatives early experiences (higher internal validity)
• Counterpoint to fewer confounding variables:

  • Studying children from Romanian orphanages might have introduced different confounding variables- conditions remarkably poor, very little intellectual stimulation or comfort
  • Means harmful effects seen in studies of Romanian orphans may represent the effects of poor institutional care
• Limitation: Lack of adult data

  • Current lack of data on adult development
  • Latest data early to mid 20s- no data on long term effects of early institutional care
  • Lifetime prevalence of mental health problems? Ppts successful in forming and maintaining adult romantic and parental relationships?
  • Longitudinal study- will time time for data
  • Means it will be some time before we know more completely what the long-term effects are for Romanian orphans