Romanian orphan studies

• what is institutionalisation?


  A term for the effects of living in an institutional setting. The term 'institution' refers to a place like a hospital or an orphanage where children live for long, continuous periods of time. In such places there is often very little emotional care provided.
• Why did institutionalisation become common in Romania?

  - Nicolae Ceaușescu ruled Romania as a communist dictator.

  - abortion and contraception were forbidden, and children were encouraged to have at least 5 children.

  - He tried to pay of foreign debts by selling abroad much of the countries produce.

  - This led to little food and shelves in shops being empty.

  - children were abandoned as their parents were unable to care for them, so they had to be subjected to institutionalised neglect and abuse.
• What was found when reporters from the west visited the orphanages in 1989 after the execution of Ceaușescu?

  they found 100,000 children living in unimaginable conditions. The orphanages lacked adequate staff, food, medicines and washing facilities, as well as access to the outdoors.
• who studied the Romanian orphans?

  Rutter (2011)
• What was Rutter's aim?


  he had studies Romanian orphans for many years, and his aim was to discover to what extent early lack of care could be made up for by later good quality care.
• Who were the participants in Rutter's study?

  - A random sample of 165 Romanian children from institutions who has all been adopted in the UK before 3 1/2 yrs.

  - A control group of 52 British children who had not lived in institutions, but were re adopted in the UK before 6 months.
• What were the children in the study tested for?

  -physical development (size, size of head, brain structure.)

  -cognitive development (attention, language, IQ.)

  -Attachment type and social behaviour

  
  

  comparisons were made between the Romanian orphans adoptees and the UK adoptees.
• How long were they assessed for in this longitudinal study?

  assessed at intervals from adoption to 15 years. Some are still being studied now.
• What were the findings at adoption?

  the Romanian orphans were smaller, weighed less and half were classified as having intellectual delay. Lagged behind the British orphans on all measures.
• What were the findings at age 4?


  Some has caught up with the English adoptees (mostly those adopted before the age of 6 months.)
• What were the intellectual functioning findings?

  At age 11, those adopted younger had better recovery.

  The mean average IQ would be 100.

  -adopted before 6months - 102

  -adopted between 6months - 2yrs - 86

  -adopted after 2yrs - 77
• What were the attachment findings?

  - Those adopted after 6 months were more likely to show disinhibited attachment when tested with a modified version of the strange situation.

  - characterised by attention seeking, clinginess and behaving similarly to known adults and strangers, suggesting Main and Solomons fourth attachment of indiscriminate.
• What were the findings of autism-like qualities?


  A proportion of Romanian adoptees experienced autism-like qualities. They has difficulties with social understanding and communication. These were very uncommon in the control group.
• what were some positive findings?


  - they made rapid improvements which continues over several years.

  - a substantial minority seemed to be functioning normally in all respects at age 11.
• What did Rutter et al conclude?

  -institutional care is inherently damaging for children's development.

  - some children, even with the most appalling early experiences can recover by latter good quality care.

  - for other children, there will be persistent difficulties.

  - 6 months of age is a crucial point in a child's life.
• What implications can be made from Rutter's study?

  - Don't use institutional care at all.

  - Children should be in a family-type environment. Foster care and adoption is best.

  - if children have to be institutionalised, they should have a key worker to provide emotional care.
• why is Rutter's study being a real world application a strength?

  - given a better understanding of the effects of early institutional care, leading to improvements of conditions, such as avoiding large numbers of key workers for each child, having 1 or 2 for emotional care and a considerable effort in foster and adoption instead.

  - children in institutional care can have a chance to develop normal attachments and a disinhibited attachment is avoided.
• Why can Rutter's study be socially sensitive?

  - the results showed late-adopted children typically have poor developmental outcomes.

  - research was published, so the general public had access to the information.

  - this can lead to prejudice, as well as upset and self-fulfilling prophecy to children who experienced orphanages.
• What are some confounding variables of Rutter's study?

  - lack of nutrition ( though this had minor effects on psychological outcomes.)

  - how long they spent in the institution before adoption.

  - "appeal of the child" when adopted.
• What was the Bucharest Early Intervention Project?


  An American run randomised experimental investigation of foster care vs institutionalisation.
• What the the sample of the Bucharest early intervention project?

  -136 abandoned infants and toddlers, randomly assigned half to foster care and half stayed in Romanian institutions (or were adopted in time) with care as usual.

  - data from a control group of 72 children raised by their birth family were also collected for comparison.
• What were the groups in the Bucharest early intervention project assessed for and for how long?

  over a 12 year span, they were tested for:

  -physical growth

  -cognitive functioning

  -brain development

  -social behaviour
• What were the findings of the Bucharest early intervention project?


  -supported Rutter's research

  -they found that children who stayed in the institution were severely impaired in IQ and showed a variety of social and emotional disorders, as well as changes in brain development.

  -the early the institutionalised child was placed into foster care, the better the recovery.
• Why does the Bucharest early intervention project have high internal validity?

  They removed the confounding variable of appeal of the child from the study. It shows it is the institutionalisation itself that caused the damage.
• What Ethical guideline could it have breached?

  - if the children who took part in the study but were from the group who were still in the institution, it could cause psychological harm/social sensitivity.
• does the end justify the means in the Bucharest early intervention project?


  -the findings did bring about change in the way children in care are looked after. Many countries shut down orphanages and key workers were made compulsory and foster care was used rather than children's homes.