AO1 - Romanian orphan studies

• Rutter (2007) aimed to investigate the extent to which good, quality care could make up for poor early experiences in an institution and its long term effects.
• Romanian children adopted after they were 6 months old showed signs of disinhibited attachment.
• Romanian children adopted before they were 6 months old showed less signs of disinhibited attachment.
• Rutter (2007) followed 165 Romanian orphans adopted to the UK from institutions in a longitudinal study.
• Comparisons were made with a sample of 52 non institutionalised UK children adopted before the age of 6 months.
• The likely effects of institutionalisation

  • Disinhibited attachment
  • Mental retardation
  • Deprivation dwarfism
• Disinhibited attachment is a form of insecure attachment where children do not discriminate between people they choose as attachment figure
• Rutter (2006) explained disinhibited attachment as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation
• Developmental retardation is when people have delayed development and have a lower IQ than the average person.
• 165 Romanian children were adopted by UK families and were studied at 4, 6 and 11 years of age.
• By the age of 11, the Romanian children showed differences in recovery related to the age of adoption.
• When assessed at age 6, 70.4% of those adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment. Compared to only 46.7% of romanian children adopted before 6 months.
• 45% of those measured as showing disinhibited attachment at 6 continued showing this behaviour at 11.
• Rutter (2007) concluded that Institutionalisation can have relatively negative long-term effects on development. But, these effects can be minimised if children are taken out of the institutional environment before 6 months.
• In Rutters (2007) research children who spent over 2 years within an orphanage had an average IQ of 77 (low).
• Deprivation dwarfism

  Children who are institutionalised are usually smaller
• Gardener (1972) suggested that a lack of emotional care could affect growth hormones causing underdevelopment.
• Gardener (1972)

  • Studied the case of an 8 month old girl who had to be fed through a tube due to malformation. Her mum would never cuddle her for fear of dislodging the tube.
  • At 8 months old she was withdrawn and physically stunted so she was admitted to hospital.
  • With attention of hospital staff, she thrived off attention and returned to normal
  • Therefore emotional disturbances may effect the production of growth hormones.
• In Rutters (2007) Romanian research over half of the institutionalised children were in the bottom third for weight and head circumference.
• Institutionalisation refers to the effects of an individual of being raised in an orphanage or residential childrens home.
• If a child is raised in an institution from birth or early infancy and the caregivers are unresponsive or frequently changing , then it is possible the child may experience privation or deprivation.