Effects of institutionalisation

• Privation - never formed an attachment

  Deprivation - loss of, or damage to an attachment

  Institutionalisation - effects of living in an institutional setting for a long period of time
• 3 effects of institutionalisation

  • Disinhibited attachment, overly social to all adults
  • Intellectual disability, those adopted before 6 months old caught up by age 4
  • Deprivation dwarfism
  • Unable to physically develop properly
• Rutters 1981 longitudinal study into Romanian orphans adopted in Britain, had 165 orphans; physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed at 4, 6, 11, and 15 years

  [52 British adopted children as control]
• Rutters study [1981]

  • 50% showed delayed intellectual development when they first arrived in the UK
  • At age 11: the mean IQ of those adopted in 6 months was 102, 86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years, and 77 for those after 2 years
  • Most children adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment
• A strength of the romanian orphan study is its uses in helping institutionalised children recover effectively
• A weakness of the Romanian orphan study is that there may be a bias in which children were adopted first. The difference in IQ and development may not be caused by the time of adoption but, time of adoption is influenced by IQ and development.
• A strength of the Romanian orphan study is that it was a natural, longitudinal study, so It has high ecological value
• A weakness of the Romanian orphan study is that the results may only be applicable to Romanian orphans as their conditions were significantly worse than other institutions.