institutionalization

• privation 


  the failure to form an attachment
• institutionalization 


  =orphanage - causes privation
• Rutter et al, Romanian orphans study - aim 


  to investigate the impact of institutionalization
• Rutter et al, Romanian orphans study - procedure

  -ongoing longitudinal study

  -comparing Romanian orphans who were adopted by UK families with 52 UK born adoptees (control group)
• Romanian adoptees 


  entered orphanage as small babies - between 1 and 2 weeks old

  conditions were very poor - evidence of severe malnourishment

  -58 were adopted before 6months old and 59 were adopted after 6months , some after the age of 2 years
• procedure - follow up

  some of children were followed up at ages 4,6,11 years

  -used a range of measure = interviews, observations of Childs behavior and teacher/peer reports
• procedure - 3 groups summary

  1-UK born adoptees

  2-Romanian adoptees, before 6 months

  3-romanian adoptees, after 6 months
• Findings - IQ

  -first arrived they showed severe cognitive deficiency

  Age 4, before 6 months = most caught up with UK born adoptees

  Age 4, after 6months = had on-going deficits

  Age 11 - differences in IQ persisted

  before 6months = mean IQ was 102(average)

  after 6months = mean IQ was 86 (below average)
• findings - attachment

  -evidence of disinhibited attachment in the Romanian orphans - more likely to go off with strangers and make inappropriate contact with strangers
• findings -age 6 - disinhibited attachment 


  most common in Romanian adoptees after 6 months -26.1% showing strong disinhibited attachment behaviors

  extremely rare in UK adoptees -3.8% showing strong disinhibited attachment behaviors

  rare in Romanian adoptees before 6 months - 8.9% showing strong disinhibited attachment behaviors

  =more likely in children who have experienced longer periods in institutions and who experienced the privation of Romanian orphanages
• findings - age 11 - disinhibited attachment

  disinhibited behavior pattern persisted
• Rutter et al - conclusion

  the effects of living in an institution and not forming attachments within Bowlby's critical period could be long-term - particular issue in late adoptees (after 6months)

  but the effects of institutionalization can be reduced with extra effort and with early adoption
• evaluation - strength

  study used various different research methods - providing both qualitative and quantitative data - providing a rich and detailed picture of the adoptees functioning in all areas of their life in the long term

  -using different research methods helps to overcome the weakness of other methods = triangulation
• evaluation - weakness

  study was longitudinal - problem of attrition= people tend to drop out of these study as they last many years , may be that certain types of people more likely to drop out - leading to a biased study

  =true effects of privation may never be known as the children with the biggest problems are no longer being studied
• evaluation - weakness

  another problem with longitudinal study - researcher bias - over the years the researcher gets to know the children and their family - may affect their conclusions so might lack validity
• evaluation - strength

  positive implications of the research is that today most babies are adopted within their first week of birth , also led to changed in institutions around the world - more emotional care and staff...
• evaluation - weakness

  its a natural experiment - cant infer cause and effect - means it might not just be institutionalization which causes the effects of disinhibited attachment - especially as some of the children developed normally attachments (even when adopted after 6 months) =must be other factors
• other factors explaining why some children continued to show the behavior but others didn't

  temperament hypothesis = innate personality characteristics cause attachment types which can explain the individual differences in each group

  -Rutter suggested children who smile more get more attention in the orphanage - therefore these children will have some early attachment experiences and then can have normal attachments as they get older.

  environment = environment in the adoptive home will determine the attachment type shown through childhood