Romanian Orphan Studies AO3

• Real world application 1/2

  +One strength of the ROS is their application to improve conditions for the children growing up outside their family home. Studying the Romanian orphans has improved psychologists‘ understanding of the effects of early institutionalisation and how to prevent the worst of the effects. (Langton). This led to improvements in the conditions experienced by looked-after children; children's homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for one child.
• Real world application21/2

  +The children tend to have one or 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. Considerable effort is made to accomodate such children in foster care or to have them adopted instead. This means that children in institutional care have a chance to develop normal attachments & disinhibited attachment is avoided.
• Lack of adult data 1/2

  -One limitation of ROS is the current lack of data on adult development. The latest data from the ERA study looked at the children in their early - mid 20s. This means we don't currently have the data to answer some of the most interesting research questions about the long term effects of institutional care. These research questions include the lifetime prevalence of mental health problems and participants success in forming & maintaining adult romantic and parental relationships.
• Lack of adult data 2/2

  It will take a long time to gather this data: ERA is a longitudinal study. This means it will be some time before we know what the long term effects are for the Romanian Orphans. It may be possible for the late - adopted children to catch up.
• Fewer confounding variables 1/2

  +Another strength of the ROS is the lack of confounding variables. There were many orphan studies before the Romanian orphans became available to study ( orphans were studied during the Second World War). Many of the children studied in orphanages had experienced varying degrees of trauma, and its difficult to disentangle the effects of neglect, physical abuse & bereavement from those of institutional care.
• Fewer confounding variables 2/2

  +However, the children from ROS were handed over by loving parents who couldn't afford to keep them. This means that results were much less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences - higher internal validity.
• +-On the other hand, studying children from Romanian orphanages might've introduced different confounding variables. The quality of care in these institutions was remarkably poor, with children receiving very little intellectual stimulation or comfort. This means that the harmful effects seen in studies of Romanian orphans may represent the effects of poor institutional care rather than institutional care.