AO3 - Romanian Orphan Studies

• Research on the negative effects of institutionalisation changed policies around adoption and care in orphanages and other institutional settings.
• Using self-reports to gather data from children can lack validity as they may not tell the truth.
• Many of the Romanian studies have small samples so lack population validity.
• There are several ethical issues when studying the effects of institutionalisation.
• Children may give socially desirable answers, lowering validity.
• Longitudinal research has disadvantages such as participant attrition.
• Longitudinal research gives us a true insight into changes in behaviour overtime, which is useful in studies like Rutter and the ERA.
• There are many practical applications following the findings of the Romanian orphan studies, much for the better.
• There are no records of how the Romanian children were treated in the orphanages, some may have received better care.
• Individual differences between the Romanian orphans are not taken into account.
• Rutter's research is consistent with cases like Koluchova (1976) showing how the quality of care can improve the outcomes.
• Langton (2006) suggests that studying Romanian orphans has improved our understanding of the effects of early institutional care.
• Confounding variables with the Romanian orphans are not taken into consideration.
• The ERA provides good data on child attachment but does not tell us much about adult development.
• Romanian orphan studies are socially sensitive.