AO1

• Background - Romanian orphanages

  • Romania 1990
  • women under 40 with less than 4 children were forbade from using contraception or having an abortion
  • Many could not afford to keep there children and they ended up in huge orphanages with poor conditions
• rutter ERA study

  • 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain
  • Some adopted before 6 months, all adopted before age 4
  • Assessed physical, cognitive and emotional development at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15
• Rutters study findings

  • Upon arrival - half of adpotees showed signs of mental retardation and the majority were severely malnourished
  • Age 11 - those adopted before 6 months had a 102 IQ and barely showed signs of disinhibited attachment, those adopted after 2 years had a 77 IQ and did show signs of disinhibited attachment
• Bucharest early intervention project - zeanah et al

  • 95 children ages 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care
  • Compared to a control group of 50 children that had never been institutionalised
  • Attachment type was measured using the ss and carers were asked about unusual social behaviours
• Findings - bucharest early intervention project

  • 74% of the control group were deemed to be securely attached
  • 19% of the institutionalised group were securely attached
  • 44% of the institutionalised group were disinhibited attachment type
• Effects of institutionalisation 1

  • Physical underdevelopment - Gardner found lack of emotional care leads to deprivation dwarfism
  • Damage to intellectual development - cognitive development is affected by emotional deprivation (can be reversed if adopted before 6 months)
• Effects of instititionalisation 2

  • Disinhibited attachment - a form of insecure attachment, a child will treat a stranger with inappropriate familiarity and may be attention seeking
  • Poor parenting - Quinton compared a group of 50 women brought up in institutions with a control group. When in their 20s when reared in institutions experience extreme difficulties acting as parents - their children went on to spend time in care