ROMANIAN ORPHAN STUDIES

• What was the procedure of the English and Romanian adoptee study?

  165 Romanian orphans tracked longitudinally. 111 adopted before 2. Results compared to a control group of 52 adopted children from UK
• what did the findings help do?

  expand knowledge of the effects of privation on the physical, emotional and cognitive development of young people
• at what ages were the children followed up with?

  4 6 11 and 15
• what was shown when the orphans first arrived in the UK?

  signs of delayed intellectual development and majority were severely malnourished
• Backstory of the orphans

  Romania was ruled by a communist dictator who banned contraception and abortion in the 60s. The economy was struggling too, the country was massively overpopulated with insufficient money, childless couples were taxed. This lead to an abundance of children being born and then abandoned
• Results of those adopted before 6 months

  Mean IQ of 102, quickly caught up with the British children
• results of those adopted before 2 years

  significant cognitive, social and physical development problems and had mean IQs of 86
• results of those adopted after 2 years

  problems which required intervention from educational psychologists or psychiatrists. mean IQ of 77
• Who carried out the Romanian orphan study

  Rutter
• How long did the problems persist in the late adopted group?

  Till age 15
• what did the symptoms were shown in the late adoption group?

  Similar to autism - difficulties understanding the meaning of social contexts and may display obsessional behaviour
• What attachment style did children adopted after 6 months show?


  Disinhibited attachment
• what are symptoms of disinhibited attachment?

  attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards adults, both familiar and unfamiliar
• Which study does the Romanian orphan study support?

  Bowlby’s critical and sensitive period as those who didn’t form an attachment never seemed to fully recover
• How did Zeanah et al study Romanian orphans?

  Used strange situation to asses attachment in 95 Romanian children, aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their life in institutional care.

  compared to control group 50 children who never experienced institutional care
• What were the findings of Zeanah et al’s orphan study?

  19% of the institutionalised group were securely attached compared to 74% of control group

  44% of institutionalised had characteristics of disinhibited attachment compared to 20% of the control group
• Strengths

  Real world application - led to improvements in way children are cared for eg one ‘key caregiver’ for a child. More chance To form attachments

  Only way to study - it is a natural experiment
• weaknesses

  sociability is a confounding variable - the more sociable children get adopted early

  socially sensitive - low IQ could lead to self fulfilling prophecy, mental issues