Romainan orphan studies: institutionalisation

• Rutter et a. English and Romanian study procedure: Researchers followed 165 Romanian orphans who experienced very bad conditions before being adopted in the UK. It was a longitudinal study which tested the extent to which good care can make up for poor early experiences in institutions. Physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at ages 4,6,11,15 and 22-25 years. There was also a control group of 52 adopted children from the UK.
• Rutter et al. English and Romanian study findings: half of the orphans showed delayed intellectual development when they came to the UK. At age 11 recovery rates were related to their age at adoption. Those adopted before 6 months had a mean IQ of 102 and those after 2 years was 77. Also, frequency of disinhibited attachment related to age at adoption. It was apparent in children adopted after they were 6 months old, they were clingy, attention seeking and indiscriminate affection to strangers
• Rutter et al. English and Romanian study conclusions: these findings support Bowlby's view that there is a sensitive period in the development of attachments. A failure to form an attachment before the age of 6 months and after the age of 2 years appears to have long lasting effects.
• Zeanah et al. study on Bucharest early intervention project procedure: the researched used the Strange Situation to assess attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care. They were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never experienced institutional care
• Zeanah et al. study on Bucharest early intervention project findings and conclusions: Only 19% of the institutionalised group were securely attached (74% of control group ). 44% of the institutionalised group had characteristics of disinhibited attachment (20% of the control group)
• The effects of institutionalisation are:

  • disinhibited attachment- such children tend to be equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know or total strangers. This may be an adaptation to multiple caregivers
  • damage to intellectual development- institutionalised children of ten show signs of intellectual disability. This effect is not as pronounced if the children are adopted before 6 months of age
• One strength of the Roman orphans study is real world application. Results from this research have ;ed to imporovements in the way children are cared for in institution. Children's homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child. They have one to two 'key workers' who play a central role. This means children in institutional care have a chance to develop normal attachments and disinhibited attachment is avoided.
• One limitation is the lack of data on adult development. It is too soon to say for certain whether children suffered permanent effects because we only have data on their development as far as their early twenties. It will be some time before we have information about some key research questions. This means the Romanian orphan studies have not yet yielded their most important findings, some children may 'catch up'
• One strength is fewer confounding variables than other research. There were many orphan studies before the Romanian orphans became available to study. These often involved children who experienced loss or trauma before they were institutionalised. Neglect, above and bereavement meant it was hard to observe the effects of institutionalisation in isolation. This children were affected by multiple factors as confounding variations. This means we can be fairly sure that differences in institutionally cared for children are the result of this type of care (high internal validity)