romanian orphans

• Rutter followed 165 orphans adopted by British families, was asking the question of which if good quality aftercare made up for negative early attachment experiences
• adoptees in rutter study were assessed at ages 4 6 11 15 and 22-25 on cognitive, physical and emotional development- when the adoptees first arrived they showed signs of malnourishment, and showed signs of delayed intellectual development
• When the adopted orphans at theage of 11 were assessed their rate of recovery were related to their age at adoption
• Rutter continued- at 11 age, assessed for recovery- highest IQ reflected the earliest adoption time bracket
• rutter- adoptees adopted after the age of 6 months showed a disinhibited attachment style which includes clingyness, attention-seeking behaviour and affectionate behaviour directed towards familiar and unfamiliar adults
• Zeanah et al 2005- attachment assessed in 95 romanian orphans aged 12-31 months who had spent most their lives in institutional care- compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in care
• zeanah et al findings from control group of 50 never in care and 95 who had spent their lives living in institutional care- findings- more securely attached in the never in care, more disinhibited for the in care group,
• research has shown that there appears to be two major effects into institutionalisation- displayed intellectual development displayed by Rutter, problems in attachment as shown by rutter and zeanah- rutter explained this high proportion of disinhibited attachment by the high amount of carers in the institutionalised children's lives so it was hard to form and maintain a singular primary attachment
• has improved the conditions for children growing up outside the family home, eg now childrens homes avoid having a large number of caregivers for children, who instead now tend to have 1 or 2 key caregivers who provide emotional care, has also led to foster care or adoption over going into institutional care which is seemed undesirable, this increases the chances of children in developing normally
• lack of confounding variables- previous orphan studies used orphans who experienced trauma eg war orphans, instead with the romanian orphans they were handed over mostly due to parents not being able to afford to care for them- meaning that the results are less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences, higher internal validity
• However, confounding variables could come from the orpahages themselves, remarkably poor care in orphanages, very little comfort, very little emotional care, very little intellectual stimulation,
• Socially sensitive research- the results were published when the children were growing up, they showed that late adopted children typically have poor developmental outcomes which could result in lower expectations or self belief
• the study in general is still ongoing as the romanian orphans are not in their later life period yet, meaning we still do not have the answer to all questions