Institutionalisation

• What does Institutionalisation mean?

  How a person's behaviour changes when they have spent a long time in an institute (e.g. orphanage, prison)
• What was the Romanian orphans?

  • 1967 = communist director wanted to increase population of Romania by making removing contraception and abortion
  • Many families couldn’t look after these children so they were placed in orphanages where there was very little physical/emotional care with no cognitive simulation
  • 1989 = when the regime collapsed, around 100,000 children were found in horrid conditions and many were adopted outside of Romania (e.g. UK, France, Canada)
• What was Rutter et al's aim for the ERA study (2011)?


  To investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
• What was Rutter et al's method for the ERA study (2011)?

  Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans for many years (longitudinal study) that had been adopted by families in the UK. They assessed physical, cognitive and emotional development from ages 4-30 years old. A group of 52 children from the UK, adopted at a similar time, served as a control group.
• What was Rutter et al's results for the ERA study (2011)?


  When they first arrived in the UK, ½ of the orphans showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely undernourished. At age 11, there were differential rates of recovery (related to the age of adoption). The mean IQ when adopted before 6 months was 102 vs 77 when adopted after 2 years (critical period). The children who were adopted after 6 months showed a disinhibited attachment (showing attention-seeking, clingy behaviour to all adults, familiar and non-familiar).
• What was Rutter et al's conclusion for the ERA study (2011)?

  Time of adoption is extremely important – being adopted before 6 months has better outcome than after 6 months. There are 4 core effects of institutionalisation: physical underdevelopment, intellectual under-functioning, disinhibited attachments and poor parenting in the future
• What was a strength of Rutter's research into institutionalisation?

  Real life application to social care system

  • His research has led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions (e.g. key workers and better environments). This means children are more likely to form normal attachments and therefore avoid disinhibited attachments
• What was a strength of Rutter's research into institutionalisation?

  Longitudinal research is useful to monitor behaviour over time

  • Rutter’s research took place over many years which provided detailed results = high validity
• What was the counter argument for 'longitudinal research is useful to monitor behaviour over time' of Rutter's research into institutionalisation?

  We cannot say the effects are lifelong as there is no research on a person past the age of 30 = unsure of the full extent of the effects of institutionalisation
• What was a limitation of Rutter's research into institutionalisation?


  Research only shows extreme conditions of institutionalisation

  • Romanian orphanages weren’t typical institutions – children were raised in extreme conditions with poor care and low levels of intellectual stimulation = lack generalisability