romanian orphan studies

• research on maternal deprivation has turned to orphan studies as a means of studying the effects of deprivation
• a tragic opportunity to look at the effects of institutional care and the consequent institutionalisation arose in Romania in the 1990’s
• in romania the president had wanted women to have five children
• abortion and contraception was banned
• many romanian parents could not afford to keep their children and these children had ended up in orphanages with poor conditions
• after 1989 the children had become to get adopted e.g. by british families
• procedure:

  • rutter and colleagues have followed a group of 165 romanian orphans adopted in britain to test to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
  • physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at ages 4,6,11 and 15 years.
  • a group of 52 british children adopted at around at the same time and this had served as a control group.