Romanian orphan studies: Institutionalisation

• What are orphan studies?

  • These concern children placed in care because their parents cannot look after them
  • An orphan is a child whose parents have either died or have abandoned them permanently
• What is Institutionalisation?

  • A term for the effects of living in an institutional setting
  • The term ‘institution’ refers to a place like a hospital or a orphanage where people live for a long , continuous periods of time
  • In such places there is often very little emotional care provided
  • In attachment research we are interested in the effects of institutional care on children’s attachment and subsequent development
• Background of the Romanian orphan studies:

  • Former president Nicolai Ceaucesu required Romanian women to have five children
  • Many Romanian parents couldn’t afford to keep their children and the children ended up in huge orphanages in very poor conditions. After the 1989 Romanian revolution many of the children were adopted, some by British parents
• RUTTER ET AL: procedure

  • followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans for many years as part of the English and Romanian adoptee (ERA) study , orphans were adopted by parents in Britain
  • The aim of ERA has been to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experience in institutions
  • Physical , cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at ages 4,6,11,15 and 22-25 years
  • A group of 52 children from the UK adopted around the same time served as a control group
• RUTTER ET AL: findings

  • When the children first arrived in the UK many showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely malnourished
  • At age of 11 they showed differential rates of recovery that were related to their age of adoption
  • Mean IQ of the children adopted before the age of 6 months was 102 and , compared with 86 of those adopted between 6 months and 2 years , and 77 after 2 years
  • Children adopted after 6 months showed signs of ‘disinhibited attachment’ - symptoms would include attention-seeking , clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar - children adopted under 6 months rarely displayed this
• ZEANAH ET AL RESEARCH: procedure

  • Conducted the Bucharest early intervention (BEI) project , assessing attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care (90% on average)
  • Compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution
  • Their attachment type was measured using the Strange Situation
  • Carers were asked about unusual social behaviour including , clingy , attention-seeking behaviour directed inappropriately at all adults
• ZEANAH ET AL RESEARCH: findings

  • Found that 74% of the control group were classed as securely attached in the Strange Situation
  • However, only 19% of the institutional group were securely attached
  • In contrast , the description of disinhibition attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to less than 20% of the controls
• What are the two effects of institutionalisation?

  • Disinhibited attachment
  • Intellectual disability
• What is Disinhibited attachment?

  • Children who have spent their early life’s in instituted showed signs of this - being equally friendly and affectionate toward familiar people and strangers , is highly unusual behaviour
  • Rutter (2006) had explained disinhibition attachment as an adaption to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation - in poor quality institutes (like Romania) a child might have 50 carers but doesn’t spend enough time with any one of them to be able to form a secure attachment
• What is Intellectual disability?

  • In Rutters study most children showed signs of intellectual disability when they arrived in Britain. However , most of those adopted before they were 6 months old caught up with the control group by age 4
  • It appears that like emotional development damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalisation can be recovered provided adoption takes place before the age of 6 months - the age at which attachment forms
• EVALUATION- real-world application- STRENGTH

  • Application to improve conditions for children growing outside their family home
  • Studying Romanian orphans have improved psychologists understanding of the effects of early institutional care and how to prevent the worst of these effects (Langton 2006). Led to the improvements in the conditions experienced by children’s homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child. Children nowadays tend to have one-two ‘key workers’ who play a central role in their emotional care. Institutional care is now seen as an undesirable option for looked after children
  • Means that children in institutional care have a chance to develop normal attachments and disinhibition attachment is avoided
• EVALUATION- fewer confounding variables- STRENGTH

  • Lack of confounding variables
  • Many orphan studies before they were Romanian orphans became available to study (WW2 orphans). Many of the children studied in orphanages had experienced varying degrees of trauma , and it is difficult to disentangle the effects of neglect , physical abuse and bereavement from those of institutional care. However the children from Romanian orphanages had , in the main , been handed over by loving parents who could not afford to keep them
  • Means that results were much less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences (higher internal validity)
• EVALUATION- lack of adult data- LIMITATION

  • Lack of data on adult development
  • Latest data from ERA study looked at their children in their early - to mid 20s. His means that we do not currently have data to answer some of the most interesting research questions abut the long-term effects of early institutional care. These research questions include the lifetime prevalence of mental health problems and participants success in forming and maintaining adult romantic and parental relationships. Takes time to gather this data because of longitudinal designs of the study
  • Means it will be some time before we know more completely what the long-term effects are for the Romanian orphans. It is possible that late-adopted children may ‘catch up’
• EVALUATION- social sensitivity- LIMITATION

  • The Romanian orphans studies are socially sensitive because the results show that late-adopted children typically have poor developmental outcomes. Results have been published while the children have been growing up, meaning that their parents , teachers and anyone else who knew them might have lowered their expectations and treated the adopted children differently. This might even have created a self-fulfilling prophecy
  • One the other hand , much have been learned from the Romanian orphan studies that might have benefit future institutionalise or potentially institutionalised children
• EVALUATION- fewer confounding variables- LIMITATION

  • Studying children from Romanian orphanages might have introduced different confounding variables. The quality of care in these institutions was remarkably poor , with children receiving very little intellectual stimulation or comfort
  • Means that the harmful effects seen in studies of Romanian orphans may represent the effects of poor institutional care rather than institutional care per se