Effects of Institutionalisation - Romanian orphans

• Rutter et al

  aims

  • To investigate the effects of institutionalisation in a group of 165 Romanian orphans
• Rutter et al

  procedure

  • Studied a group of about 165 Romanian orphans and assessed them at four, six and eleven years old, in terms of psychological, emotional and physical development.
  • These results were compared to 50 children adopted in Britain at roughly the same time, which acted as a control group.
• Rutter et al

  findings

  • The majority of orphans were malnourished.
  • The mean IQ was dependent upon the age of which the orphans were adopted.
  • Those adopted after 6 months displayed signs of disinhibited attachment (a type of disorganised attachment), whereas those adopted before 6 months rarely showed such signs.
  • This is characterised by attention-seeking and affectionate behaviour being shown towards any or all adults, and is thought to be the result of having too many caregivers within the critical period of attachment formation, so a secure attachment cannot be developed.
• Rutter et al

  conclusion

  • Rutter et al demonstrated the importance and effects of adopting orphans at different ages, which was directly related to their rate of recovery.
  • A full recovery could be made if adoption occurred before the age of 6 months. This includes both emotional and intellectual developmental recoveries.
  • These conclusions were supported by the Bucharest Early Intervention project carried out by Zeanah et al (2005), who demonstrated that 65% of their sample of 95 orphans displayed signs of disorganised attachments, compared to 20% of the healthy non-deprived control group
• strength -

  The main advantage of Rutter’s study, compared to other adoption studies, is that he was able to study the effects of institutionalisation in isolation through removing the confounding and extraneous variables of PTSD and trauma often associated with war orphans. This increases the confidence that researchers can place in drawing reliable conclusions about the effects of institutionalisation and the displayed differential rates of recovery.
• weakness -

  A key methodological issue associated with Rutter’s study is the focus on short-term recovery, rather than long-term rates. For example, just because a child adopted at the age of 3 years olds does not exhibit normal intellectual development at age 4, does not necessarily mean that the child is retarded or that they will not achieve normal development at a later point in their lives. Therefore, to increase the validity of the conclusions drawn, it would have been better to carry out the study across a longer time scale
• weakness -

  Some researchers have criticised the findings from Rutter’s study as having very low ecological validity because the conditions of the Romanian orphanages were especially poor. For example, the orphanages did not provide any intellectual stimulation for the orphans, which may have had a larger impact on their intellectual development compared to maternal deprivation as a single cause. Since the average orphanage would have considerably better conditions, this suggests that the findings cannot be generalised beyond the research setting they were found in.
• Many of those Romanian orphans adopted after six months showed disinhibited attachment and had problems with peers. This suggests that long-term consequences may be less severe than was once thought if children have the opportunity to form attachments. However, when children do not form attachments (i.e continuing failure of attachment) then the consequences are likely to be severe.