Romanian orphan studies

• What is institutionalisation in the context of attachment?

  It is the effect of growing up in an environment that is not typical of a family climate such as an orphanage or a children's home where there is no primary caregiver. This often results in a lack of emotional care so children are unable to form attachments/suffer from privation.
• Summarise the Romanian Orphan study into the effect of Institutionalisation Procedure:

  Rutter et al studied 165 romanian orphans (111 of which adopted before the age of 2 and 54 adopted before the age of 4)The control group was 52 British children adopted before the age of 6 months

  Information was also collected from interviews with teachers and parents.
• What were the findings?

  Romanians were very far behind in physical and social development

  Many children adopted after 6 months exhibited disinhibited attachment and experienced difficulty with peer relationships
• Summarise Zeanah et als Procedure

  Assessed attachment in 95 children of ages 12-31 months who had spent 90% of their lives in institutional care

  Compared their attachment to 50 children who had never lives in institutional care

  Attachment type was measured through the strange situation as well as interviews with carers
• What are some of the effects of institutionalisation?

  • physical underdevelopment (called deprivation dwarfism by Gardner)
  • "mental retardation" according to Rutter
  • Disinhibited attachment- not knowing how to act towards strangers
  • Quasi autism- lack of understanding for social situations
  • Inhibited intellectual development- poor concentration, intelligence
  • Lack of IWM development
  • Lack of emotional development- temper tantrums
• Are these permanent affects?

  Not necessarily. For example, Rutter found that those who were adopted before 6 months caught up by the age of 4 and therefore emotional development and intellectual development can be recovered.
• AO3 institutionalisation

  :( Individual Differences not all institutions were the same and some children would have received varying levels of attention that could have influenced their ability to attach

  :) Real - life application as these studies have enhanced the understanding of the effects of institutionalisation

  :( Atypical situation

  The Romanian orphanages had particularly poor standards and low levels of intellectual stimulation which are not necessarily generalisable to other institutions with better care