AO3

• The effects may just be due to slower development

  • Effects of institutionalisation may disappear over time if children have good quality emotional care
  • One of the findings from the Romanian study was that at the last assessment a lower number of children had disinhibited attachment
  • This suggests that the children simply needed more time than normal children
• • Another problem with this type of study is that once the children were adopted they may not wish to take part in the study anymore so the results would not be representative
  • Children not randomly assigned to adoption and control groups, but were selected by the new parents, so it could be that the more sociable children were more likely to be adopted.
• The Romanian orphans were faced with much more than emotional deprivation. The physical conditions were appalling, and this impacted their health. The lack of cognitive stimulation would also affect their development. It is also the case that, for many institutionalised children, poor care in infancy is followed by poor subsequent care, such as living in poverty, parental disharmony and so on (Turner and Lloyd, 1995). This means that it is likely that the effects of institutional care go beyond emotional deprivation.