romanian orphans a03

• • There is good real-world application of the Romanian orphan studies
  • There is a greater understanding now of how institutionalisation can affect the physical, social, emotional and cognitive development of children
  • This has led to improvements in conditions of looked-after children in orphanages and foster care
  • Institutional care is now avoided, with a higher effort being placed on adoption or foster care
  • Adoptions are aimed to happen within the first week of a baby's life where possible to ensure attachments can be made with adoptive parents
• • The data was not followed into adulthood
  • There is a lack of data from the Romanian orphans in their adult lives
  • This raises questions about the long-term impacts of institutionalisation such as:
  • mental health
  • forming adult relationships, including marriage and parenthood
  • maintaining employment and careers
  • This means that the children who had not progressed in line with the control groups may have done so if the data had been gathered into adulthood
• • The Romanian orphan studies do, however have some confounding variables
  • The Romanian children that formed part of the studies did not just suffer from emotional neglect
  • There was a lack of physical care and intellectual stimulation
  • This means that the findings of the orphan studies may be due to poor institutional care, rather than just the fact they were institutionalised at all
  • Therefore the results cannot be generalised to all children who have been institutionalised