Institutionalisation - Rutter

• Institution

  A place dedicated to a particular task, such as looking after children waiting for adoption, or caring for the mentally ill.

  A place where someone will live for an extended period of time
• Institutionalisation

  The effect of institutional care. How time spent in an institution can affect the development of children
• Background - Romania 1966


  Romania was under a dictatorship (Nicolae Ceausecu)

  Ceausecu tried to boost the population through banning abortion and encouraging large families

  Many babies could not be cared for by their families and were put into institutional care - being discovered by the western world when the regime collapsed in 1989

  More than 100,000 orphans in 600 state-run orphanages

  • They spent days alone without cognitive or emotional stimulation and were malnourished and uncared for
• ERA Study

  English and Romanian adoptees study
• Rutter and Songhua-Barke ERA Study (2010) - Aim


  Studied a group of Romanian orphans since the early 1990’s to identify the effects of institutionalisation
• ERA study - Method

  165 Romanian Orphans who suffered institutionalisation

  111 adopted before 2

  54 adopted before 4

  Tested at regular intervals (1, 6, 11, 15) to assess physical, cognitive and social development

  Information was gathered through interviewing parents and teachers

  Comparison group - 52 British children adopted before 6 months
• ERA Study - Findings

  Romanian children were physically, cognitively and socially behind their British equivalent

  Smaller, weighed less, classified as ‘mentally retarded’

  Some children caught up by the age of 4, true for all Romanian orphans adopted before 6 months

  Significant issues developed in children who stayed in institutions beyond 6 months - showing disinhibited attachments and had problems developing relationships
• ERA Study - Conclusion

  The findings suggest that long-term consequences may be less severe than once thought, if children have the opportunity to form later attachments

  Those who are unable to form attachments have severe consequences
• Le Mare and Audet (2006)


  A longitudinal study of 36 Romanian orphans adopted by Canadian families - assessing physical growth and health

  Orphans were physically smaller than matched control group at 4.5 years old, but caught up by 10.5

  Suggests that physical recovery is possible
• Zeanah et al (2005)


  Compared 136 Romanian who had spent 90% of their lives in an institution to a control group of children who had never been in an institution

  Found signs of disinhibited attachment using the strange situation

  • Physical underdevelopment - deprivation dwarfism
  • Intellectual under functioning - cognitive development is affected by emotional deprivation
• Disinhibited attachment

  Secure attachment where the child doesn't discriminate between those they choose as attachment figures
• Weakness - Individual differences

  Perhaps individual differences need to be considered when understanding the short and long term impacts of institutionalisation
• Evaluation - Privation v Deprivation 


  Those that have not experienced attachment suffer the most
• Strength - real world application

  We’ve learn an enormous amount about institutionalisation - improving the lives of children in care

  Stresses the importance of early adoption - before the sensitive period of attachment

  Today, most orphans are adopted within the first week of a babies life, allowing them to form a secure attachment
• Strength - Longitudinal studies

  The value of longitudinal studies in this context is vast

  If children weren’t tracked and assessed over time, and compared against control groups - this would undermine the results and result in wrong conclusions
• Weakness - Deprivation is only one factor 


  The Romanian orphans were not only faced with emotional deprivation, but a lack of cognitive stimulation (impacting intellect) and applying living conditions (impacting physical health)

  Multiple risk factors increases the chance of damage to the child

  • We cannot therefore generalise results from ERA study