Romanian orphanage

• What was Rutter's Aim?

  To examine the long term effects of institutionalisation
• What was Rutter's Aim

  165 children from a Romanian orphanage were examined

  • 111 were adopted before the age of two

  • 54 were adopted by the age of 4

  Rutter compared these children to a control group of 52 British children who had been adopted before the age of 15 months (❌Not exposed to the same conditions)

  They assessed the children when they were aged 4, 6, 11 and 15 to assess their physical cognitive and social development

  Data was gathered through interviews with parents and teachers
• What was Rutter's Findings

  •The children who were adopted after 6 months showed significant problems in terms of social, cognitive, and physical development. They were smaller, weighed less, and were classified as being mentally retarded

  •In later assessments, it was found that these children had disinhibited attachments and problems with peers

  •One-third of those adopted later had problems requiring the intervention of an educational psychologist or psychiatrist. These problems persisted up to the age of 15. They showed symptoms similar to autism
• What was Rutter's conclusion?

  These findings support the idea of Bowlby's critical period, as those who did not form an attachment seemed to never fully recover

  It also suggests that long-term consequences are less severe if the child is adopted early and has the opportunity to form new attachments
• Le Mare and Audet

  Conducted a longitudinal study on the physical growth and health of 36 Romanian orphans adopted by Canadian families and compared them to a group of children raised in normal Canadian households.

  Data was collected for each child at three points: 11 months after adoption at the age of 4,5 and again at 10.5

  Findings:

  • The adopted children were physically smaller and had poorer health at 4.5. However, by 10.5 years old, there was no difference between the two groups. The Romanian orphans had caught up to the Canadian children
• Disinhibited attachment

  Some children will show a form of insecure attachment, and they do not discriminate between people whom they choose as attachment figures. Some children treat near-strangers with inappropriate familiarity (over friendliness) and may be attention seeking
• Intellectual under-functioning

  Children often experience poor cognitive development. They may suffer from mental retardation, low IQ or problems with concentration
• Poor parenting

  Quinton et al. found that women raised in institutions experienced difficulties acting as parents in later life in comparison to women raised at home. Harlows monkeys also showed problems with parenting. This could be linked to BOwlby's internal working model
• Emotional problems

  Children who experienced institutionalisation are likely to display temper tantrums as they find it hard to express their emotion
• Difficulties with peers

  Institutionalised children often experience difficulties forming relationships with others ( due to a lack of an internal working model)
• Evaluating the Romanian Orphan Studies and effects on institutionalisation

  ✅ Rutters Romanian orphan study was a longitudinal study therefore it has high validity therefore the results are more accurate

  ❌ However one negative of a longitudinal study is participant attrition This means that there was a high drop-out rate
• Evaluating the Romanian Orphan Studies and effects on institutionalisation

  ❌ Rutters data was collected using interviews with parents and teachers this is a negitive because it allows demand characteristics as the parents will make it seem like their child is doing is better than it actually is therefore there is a reliability issue with Rutters study

  ❌In Rutters research there was a huge number of extraneous variables that couldn't be controlled such as How long they were in institutions as a result the replicability was low
• Evaluating the Romanian Orphan study and effects on institutionalisation

  ❌There are individual differences in the effects of institutionalisation as this is because the quality of care was different for different children
• Evaluating the Romanian orphan study and effects on institutionalisation

  ✅ There have been other studies that support Rutter's claims that institutionalisation has a negative impact on infants particularly the influence on dis-inhibited attachments

  Zeneah et al (2005)

  136 orphans between 12-31 who have lived 90% of their lives in orphanages compared to children with no institutionalisation.

  They ran them through the strange situation

  74% of the control group were securely attached

  They found that the orphans had disinhibited attachment
• Evaluating the Romanian orphan study and effects on institutionalisation

  ✅There are many real-life applications of research into institutionalisation leading to a big push away from orphanages instead the children go into foster care
• Parenting skills

  Parents who had insecure childhood attachments will lack positive ideas about how to form relationships with their own children which means they may be less caring parents themselves. on the other hand it is likely that parents with secure childhood attachments will be caring towards their own children and will therefore make string relationships with them
• Romantic relationships

  Hazan and Shaver demonstrated that secure attachments lead to strong, trusting and committed relationships. The opposite is true for insecure childhood attachments
• Mental health

  Lacking an attachment during the critical period can lead to the lack of an internal working model. Children who experience neglect or frequently changing caregivers often have an attachment disorder which causes them to have no preferred attachment figure and an inability to interact with others