Romanian orphan studies

• Romanian institutions (1990s)

  1. President required women to have 5 children
  2. Families couldn't afford it
  3. so put children into institutions
  4. After revolution British parents adopted many
• Ruttler et al (2011)

  Procedure

  1. Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans for many years
  2. Physical, cognitive and emotional development had been assessed at 4, 6, 11, 15, 22-25 years
  3. A group of 52 brittish adopted children were used as control
• Ruttler et al (2011)

  Findings

  • When they first arrived showed signs of delayed intelectual development
  • 11 years - children showed different rates of recovery related to the age of adoption

  Before 6 months - IQ 102

  6 months - 2 years - IQ 86

  After 2 years - 77
• Zeanah et al


  Procedure

  1. Conducted the Bucharest early intervention project (BEI) to asses 95 Romanian children who had spent most of their life in institutions
  2. They were compared to 50 children never in institutions
  3. Attachment type measured against strange situation
  4. Social workers also quesitioned
• Zeanah et al

  Findings

  Secure attachment:

  • 74% control
  • 19% Romanian children

  Disinhibited attachment:

  • <20 control
  • 44% Romanian children
• Disinhibited attachment

  An attachment type developed by those institutionalized, equally friendly toward familiar people and strangers
• Intellectual disability

  Delay experienced by many institutionalized children
• Evaluation- Strength

  Real world application

  • Improved psychologists understanding of effect and lead to improved experiences
  • Children mainly now have one key worker
  • Institutionalization now seen as undesirable
• Evaluation - Strength

  Lack of confounding variables

  • Children did not come into institutionalization from a bad background instead came from loving parents

  COUNTERPOINT

  • Institutions may have introduced confounding variables as care was poor
• Evaluation - Weakness

  Lack of data on adult development

  • No current completed longitudinal study