Institutionalisation

• A strength of research into Romanian orphans is that it has real world application. In the Romanian orphanages there were half a million orphans. This meant each orphanage was extremely overcrowded which added to the already severe conditions. This had an impact on how children's care homes run today as it means there aren't too many children cramped together. This suggests that children who are in care have had their lives improved. Therefore,this study can be argued as a strong study of attachment.
• Another strength of this study is that it was a longitudinal study. This means that the adoptees were studied over a long period of time. Rutter tested the adpotees at different ages (4,6,11 and 15) and their physical,cognitive and social development was assessed. This suggests this study has a large quantity and variety of data. Therefore, this increases the reliability of the study and it can be seen as a strong study of attchment.
• A drawback of this study is the potential for confounding variables from the parents that gave them up.Parents in Romania were encouraged to have lots of children so many of these children ended up in institutions as they couldn't afford to keep them all.The confounding variables come from those who they chose to give up,the children they gave up may already have had social and emotional difficulties. This suggests some children used in the study may have lacked social and emotional development prior to being in the institution.This challenges the validity of the results,(therefore weak.)
• Evaluation points-Romanian orphans

  High internal validity all children came from the same backround and were given up for the same reason.

  Criticised for lacking generalisability- can't generalise to other orphanages because not all orphanages have the same severe conditions.
• Institutionalisation- the effects of being in an institution such as an orphanage can result in emotional,physical and intellectual underdevelopment.
• Privation- children don't have the opportunity to form attachments.
• A longitudinal study is studying a group of people over a long period of time. Rutter's study was longitudinal as the adoptees were tested at different intervals ages(4,6,11 and 15.)
• Sample:165 Romanian children

  111 of who were adopted before the age of 2.

  54 adopted by the age of four.

  control group- 52 British children adopted before 6 months.
• The Romanian children spent their early lives in Romanian institutions and suffered the effects of institutionalisation. Tested at regular intervals to assess their physical,cognitive and social development.
• Findings when they were first adopted is that the Romanian orphans lagged behind the British children in all measures of physical,cognitive and social development. They were smaller and weighed less. When the Romanian children,who had been adopted before 6 months,were 4 they had all nearly caught up with the British children. However those adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachments and had trouble forming peer relationships.
• The main factor though to affect recovery rates is not forming attachments. If they had the chance to form attachments the consequences will be less severe.
• The effects of institutionalisation- physical underdevelopment (physically smaller due to lack of emotional care),intellectual under functioning(cognitive development affected,lowest IQ 77),Disinhibited attachment,poor parenting.
• Disinhibited attachment- A form of insecure attachment where children do not discriminate between the people they chose as attachment figures. They show over familiarity with strangers and engage in attention seeking behaviours.