institutionalisation

• define institutionalisation


  A period of time spent living away from the family home, e.g, in an orphanage, children's home or hospital.

  - will probably not have adequate emotional care despite caring for physical needs
• who investigated the effects of institutionalisation

  rutter
• what type of study is rutters


  an on-going longitudinal study
• participants of rutter study


  165 romanian children who spent their early lives in romanian institutions

  (111 were adopted before the age of two, 54 by the age of 4)

  
  

  52 british adoptees adopted before the age of 6 months (control group)
• procedure of rutters study


  adoptees tested at regular intervals: ages 4,6,11 and 15

  - this assessed their cognitive, physical and social development

  - info of this was also gathered from parents/teachers etc

  
  

  progress compared with the control group of british adoptees
• findings of rutters study


  time of adoption:

  - romanian orphans lagged behind counterparts on all measures

  - they were smaller, weighed less, classified as mentally retarded

  
  

  age of 4:

  - some children had caught up with british counterparts

  - this was true for almost all romanian children adopted before 6 months

  
  

  significant deficits remain in individuals who experienced institutionalized care beyond 6 months

  - showed disinhibited attachments

  - problems with peer rels
• conclusions of rutters study


  suggests that long term consequences may be less severe than previously thought if the children get the chance to form attachments

  
  

  if attachments were not formed, consequences likely to be severe
• what are the effects of institutionalisation?


  -physical underdevelopment

  - intellectual underfunctioning

  - disinhabited attachment

  - poor parenting (eg harlows study)
• whats disinhabited attachment


  a form of insecure attachment where children do not discriminate between people they choose as an attachment figure

  
  

  they will treat near strangers with inappropriate familiarity and may be attention seeking
• study of poor parenting

  Quinton
• quintons study


  50 women raised in institutions vs control group of 50 women reared at home

  
  

  when women in their 20s:

  - found that the institutionalised women were extreme difficulties acting as parents eg: more of them had children who spent time in care
• negative evaluation of effects of institutionalisation


  individual differences

  - some children are not as affected as others

  - could be because some recieved special attention in the institution by smiling more etc

  
  

  deprivation is only one factor

  - there were inevitably confounding variables

  - the orphans were faced with much more than emo deprivation: physical conditions appalling, impact on health, lack of cognitive stimulation

  
  

  effects may just be due to slower development

  - one of the findings was that at 11 years old, a lower number of kids had inhibited attatchment so institutionalised kids may simply need more time than normal to develop or learn to cope with relss

  this is a criticism because the research suggests effects are permenant but this may not be true
• positive eval of effects of institutionalisation


  real life application

  - can be applied to improve the lives of children in care

  - most babies are now adopted within the first week of birth

  
  

  longitudinal studies:

  - many studies are longitudinal and follow children over many years

  - can show trends and effects accurately over years