effects of institutionalisation

• privation


  where a child has never had an attachment to its caregiver
• Rutter and Sonuga-Barke (2010)


  -165 children who spent their lives in Romanian institutions

  -from this group 111 were adopted before the age of 2 and 54 by the age of 4

  -physical, cognitive and social development were tested at 4, 5,11 and 15 years

  -compared to control group of 52 British children adopted before the age of 6 months

  
  

  -at the time of adoption, romanian children were behind on all development measures

  -by 4 years of age almost all of the early adopted children had caught up with the British children

  
  

  -effects of privation can be reversed if an attachment starts to form before the age of 6 months

  -long-term effects are more permanent if attachment doesn't start to occur within 6 months
• Rutter and Sonuga-Barke (2010) evaluation


  -value of longitudinal studies, by following development of adopted children you can determine whether the major effects of early institutional care disappear with sufficient time and care

  
  

  -research applied in real life, research highlights the importance of early adoption before the sensitive period for attachment formation, now babies adopted within first week of birth

  
  

  -individual differences, Rutter suggested some children may have received special attention meaning they had some attachment experiences therefore can't conclude institutionalisation leads to inability to form attachments

  
  

  -deprivation is only one factor, romanian orphans also experienced poor physical conditions and the lack of cognitive stimulation impacted on their health and development therefore effects of institutional care go beyond emotional deprivation
• physical undevelopment


  lack of emotional care has been found to cause deprivational dwarfism
• intellectual underfunctioning


  Skodak and Skeels, institutionalised children scored poorly on intelligence tests
• Disinhibited attachment


  a form of insecure attachment characterised by over-friendliness with strangers and attention seeking
• poor parenting


  women reared in institutions experienced difficulty acting as parents