weaknesses

• A criticism of Romanian orphan research is that deprivation is only one factor in development. The orphans experienced very little or no mental stimulation and were often malnourished. This suggests there are multiple risk factors involved in ascertaining the effects of institutional care. Therefore, it is difficult to interpret the results of studies as the sole effect of deprivation as there are many different influences that affected these children, such as living in poverty.
•  There are issues of generalisation from Romanian orphan studies. Since the conditions of care were so dire for the Romanian orphans they cannot be considered typical. It stands to reason that the results obtained from studying the Romanian institutions do not represent all situations where children are placed in care and experience deprivation. This lack of external validity is a result of the unusual situational variables due to the harsh political regimes at the time.