romanian orphans

• orphans


  children placed in institutional care as parents unable to care for them
• institutionalisation


  effects of living in an institutional setting for a prolonged period with very little emotional care
• Romania


  women required to have 5 children before 1990's - often couldn't care for them so children had to be orphaned - natural experiment
• Rutter's ERA Study


  Rutter 2011 - English & Romanian Adoptee Study
• Rutter 2011 - procedure


  165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test if institutionalisation could be reversed - physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15
• Rutter 2011 - control group

  52 British orphans adopted at same time
• Rutter 2011 - findings


  half malnourished and intellectually underdeveloped upon arrival - found differences in ability remained up to 15 years based upon when adopted (Becket et al 2010)
• Rutter 2011 - findings - age 11


  Children adopted:

  - before age 6 months had average IQ of 102

  - between 6 months and 2 years had average of 86

  - age over 2 years had average of 77
• Disinhibited attachment


  clinginess, attention seeking and indiscriminate social behaviour towards all familiar and unfamiliar adults - most common in orphans adopted after age 6 months
• Zechah et al - BEI Project


  Zechah et al 2005 - Bucharest Early Intervention Project
• Zechah et al 2005 - procedure


  assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12 to 31 months using Strange Situation - children had spent average of 90% of lives in institutions - carers asked about signs of disinhibited attachment
• Zechah et al 2005 - control


  50 children who had never lived in institutions
• Zechah et al 2005 - findings - institution group


  65% disorganised attachment - 19% secure attachment - 44% disinhibited attachment
• Zechah et al 2005 - findings - control group


  74% secure attachment - less than 20% disinhibited attachment
• effects of institutionalisation - disinhibited attachment


  Rutter 2006 - children adopted by multiple caregivers in institutions during sensitive period - couldn't form secure attachments
• effects of institutionalisation - mental retardation


  inhibited intellectual ability evident in most upon arrival in ERA Study 2011 - most adopted before 6 months old caught up to control group by age 4
• evaluation - real-life application


  Longton 2006 - improved institutions providing 1-2 caregivers to small groups of children for more normal attachments
• evaluation - ethical issues (ERA)

  children not randomly assigned to conditions - confounding variable as children adopted earlier may have been more sociable - (children randomly allocated in BEI)
• evaluation - fewer extraneous variables


  Romanian orphans less likely to have suffered trauma from neglect, abuse or bereavement - participant variables removed - higher internal validity
• evaluation - unclear long-term effects


  children only followed to mid-teens - too soon to establish long-term effects of early experiences - future emotional problems uncertain
• evaluation - not very representative


  Romanian institutions had severe conditions - results may be due to situational variables such as low levels of care and intellectual stimulation - lower external validity