Romanian orphan studies

• Disinhibited attachment


  The child is equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know well or who are strangers. This may be an adaptation to multiple caregivers.
• Damage to intellectual development


  Institutionalised children often show signs of mental retardation. This effect is not as pronounced if the children are adopted before 6 months of age.
• English and Romanian adoptee study

  Rutter followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans who experienced very poor conditions before being adopted in Britain.

  This longitudinal study has tested the extent to which good care can make up for poor early experiences in institutions. Physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed as 4, 6, 11, and 15 years.

  The study also followed a control group of 52 adopted British children.
• English and Romanian adoptee study - findings

  Half of the orphans showed mental retardation when they came to the UK. At 11, recovery rates were related to their age of adoption:

  • Those adopted before six months had a mean IQ of 102.
  • Those adopted between six months and two years had a mean IQ of 86.
  • Those adopted after two years had a mean IQ of 77.
• English and Romanian adoptee study - conclusion

  The frequency of disinhibited attachment related to the age of adoption. It was apparent in children adopted after six months old: clinginess, attention-seeking, and indiscriminate affection to strangers. It was rare in children adopted before six months.

  These findings support the view that there is a sensitive period in the development of attachments - a failure to form an attachment before the age of six months appears to have long-lasting effects.
• A strength of the Romanian orphan studies is that they have important practical applications.


  Results from this research have led to improvements in the way children are cared for in instititions (Langton). Children's homes now avooid havig large numbers of caregivers for each child. They have one or two 'key workers' who play a central role. This gives the child a chance to develop normal attachments and avoid disinhibited attachments, immensely valuable in practical terms.
• A limitation of Romanian orphan studies is there may be issues with generalisability in Romanian studies. 


  The conditions of the orphanages are so bad that the results may not apply to institutional care or general situations of deprivation. Romanian orphanages had particularly poor standards of care, especially when it came to forming any relationship with the children. The unusual situational variables mean the studies may lack generalisability.
• Another limitation of Romanian orphan studies is that children were not randomly assigned to conditions. 


  Rutter didn't interfere with the adoption process, so those children adopted early may have been more sociable ones, a confounding variable. To control for such variables, the BUcharest Early Intervention study did randomly assign the orphans to institutional care or fostering. This methodologically better because it removes the confounding variable of some children being selected by parents, but raises ethical issues.
• A further limitation of Romanian orphan studies is the long-term effects of early experience are not yet clear. 


  It is too soon to say for certain whether children suffered short or long-term effects because the adopted orphans have only been followed into their mid-teens. The children who spent longer in institutions and currently lag behind in intellectual development or display attachment difficulties may still catch up as adults. Equally, early-adopted/fostered children who appear to have no issues now may experience emotional problems as adults.