Effects of institutionalisation

• What originated Romanian orphan studies? What is institutionalisation?

  • A president in Romania required women to have 5 children in the 1990s
  • Many parents could not afford to keep their children and a lot ended up in orphanages with poor conditions
  • Institutionalisation: effects of living in places like hospitals or orphanages where very little emotional care is provided
• What was Rutter et al.'s (2011) English and Romanian adoptee (ERA) study?


  • Followed 165 Romanian orphans who had been adopted by families in the UK, wanting to see if good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
  • Assessed types of development at ages 4-15 and 22-25 years
  • Control group of 52 British children who were adopted around the same time
• What were Rutter et al.'s (2011) ERA findings?


  • After first arrival in UK, majority adoptees were severely undernourished and half showed signs of delayed intellectual development
  • Mean IQ of those adopted BEFORE 6 months was 102 -> 86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years -> 77 for those adopted after 2 years
  • Disinhibited attachment: attention-seeking and clinginess indiscriminately directed to all adults even unfamiliar ones, present in those adopted after 6 months
• What was Zeanah et al.'s Bucharest early intervention project?


  • Assessed 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who spent most their lives institutionalised using Strange Situation
  • Control group of 50 children who were never institutionalised
  • Only 19% were securely attached and 44% of institutionalised children showed disinhibited attachment
  • 74% of control group were securely attached
• What did Rutter et al. find about the effects of institutionalisation on attachment?

  • Institutionalised children displayed high levels of disinhibited attachment - being equally friendly and responsive to all adults
  • Unusual as most young children show stranger anxiety
  • May have developed as a result of living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation
  • Poor conditions in Romania mean children don't spend enough time with any caregiver to be able to form an attachment
• What did Rutter et al. find about the effects of institutionalisation on intellect?

  • Most Romanian orphans showed signs of intellectual disability when they first arrived in UK
  • Those adopted before they were 6 months old were able to catch up with the control group by age 4
  • Shows damage to intellectual development from institutionalisation can be recovered provided the baby is adopted before 6 months - which is when attachments form
• What is one strength of research into institutionalisation?

  • Real-world application: Langton (2006) said Romanian orphan studies have improved psychologists' understanding of how to prevent the early worst effects of institutional care
  • Led to improvements of conditions within care systems e.g. children tend to have one or two 'key workers' playing a central role in their emotional care
  • More considerable effort is made to accommodate children into foster care or adoption over institutionalisation
  • Has allowed children in institutional care to develop normal attachments, increasing value of research
• What is another strength of research into institutionalisation?

  • Lack of confounding variables: orphans studied during the Second World War experienced varying degrees of trauma and it is difficult to disentangle the effects of neglect, physical harm and bereavement from those of institutional care
  • Romanian orphans had been handed over by loving parents who couldn't afford to keep them, meaning results were much less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences
  • Increases internal validity of research
• What is one limitation of research into institutionalisation?

  • Lack of adult data: latest data from ERA study looked at the children in their early to mid 20s meaning we don't currently have data on long-term effects of early institutional care
  • Research questions include the lifetime prevalence of mental health problems, and ppts. success in the formation and maintenance of adult romantic and parental relationships
  • Means it will be some time before we more completely about what the long-term effects are for Romanian orphans - incomplete theories
• What is another limitation of research into institutionalisation?

  • Socially sensitive: conclusions are that lade-adopted children typically have poor developmental outcomes and results were published while children have been growing up - anyone who knew them at the time may have lowered their expectations of the children or treated them differently
  • This may have even created a self-fulfilling prophecy meaning the effects of this research could have had potentially negative effects on the participants