Romanian orphan studies (institutionalisation)

• Romanian orphan studies


  Research on maternal deprivation has turned to orphan studies as a means of studying the effects of deprivation on emotional and intellectual development
• A tragic opportunity to look at the effects of institutional care and the consequent institutionalisation arose in Romania in the 1990s
• Former President Nicolai Ceauçescu required Romanian women to have five children
• Many Romanian parents could not afford to keep their children and the children ended up in huge orphanages in very poor conditions
• After the 1989 Romanian revolution many of the children were adopted, some by British parents
• Rutter et al.'s research

  1. Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans for many years as part of the English and Romanian adoptee (ERA) study

  2. Aim was to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions

  3. Assessed physical, cognitive and emotional development at ages 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years

  4. 52 children from the UK adopted around the same time served as a control group
• Zeanah et al.'s research

  1. Assessed attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care

  2. Compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution

  3. Attachment type measured using the Strange Situation

  4. Carers asked about unusual social behaviour including clingy, attention-seeking behaviour directed inappropriately at all adults
• Disinhibited attachment


  Children equally friendly and affectionate towards familiar people and strangers, highly unusual behaviour
• Rutter's explanation of disinhibited attachment

  Adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during sensitive period for attachment formation, in poor quality institutions a child might have 50 carers but doesn't spend enough time with any one to form a secure attachment
• Damage to intellectual development from institutionalisation can be recovered if adoption takes place before 6 months, the age at which attachments form
• Strengths of Romanian orphanage studies

  • Application to improve conditions for children growing up outside family home
  • Fewer confounding variables as children had been handed over by loving parents who couldn't afford to keep them
• Limitations of Romanian orphanage studies

  • Lack of adult data, latest data only to early-mid 20s so long-term effects unknown
  • Poor quality of care in Romanian institutions may mean effects represent poor institutional care rather than institutional care per se