romainan orphan studies: institutionalisation

• • intro>>>

  - Orphan studies have been used to study the effect of deprivation on emotional and intellectual development

  - The effects of institutionalisation arose in Romania in the 1990s

  - The form president required Romanian women to have 5 kids

  - Many parents couldn’t afford this and put many of their kids in orphanages with very poor conditions

  - After the 1989 Romanian revolution, many kids were adopted by british parents
• rutter et al research : procedure>>>

  - For years, Rutter and co (2011) followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans as part of the ERA study (English and Romanian adoptee)

  - The orphan were adopted by the british

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

  - Assessed physical, cognitive and emotional development of the ages 4,6,11,15 and 22-25 years

  - A group of 52 british kids adopted round the same time were the control group
• rutter et al research: findings>>>(1/2)

  - When the kids first came to the UK, half of the adoptees showed signs of delayed interllectual development – majority were severely undernourished

  - At age 11, the adopted kids showed differential rates of recovery that related to their age of adoption

  - Mean IQ for kids adopted before age of 6 months: 102

  - Compares with kids adopted between 6 months and 2 years: 86

  - Kids adopted after 2 years : 77

  - These differences remained at age 16 ( Beckett et al 2010)
• rutter et al research: findings >>> (2/2)

  - ADHD was most common in the 15 and 22-25 age range (Kennedy et al 2016)

  - Kids adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment. Included symptoms;

  - Attention-seeking

  - Clinginess

  - Kids adopted before age of 6 months didn’t tend to display disinhibited attachment
• zeanah et al research :procedure>>>

  - Zeanah et al (2005) conducted the BEI project (Bucharest early intervention )

  - This assessed attachment in 95 Romanian kids aged 12-31 months who spent most of there live (avg 90%) in institutions

  - compared to the control group – 50 kids who had never lived in an institution

  - used the strange situation test to measure the type of attachment

  - measured disinhibited attachment – asked carers if they’d seen signs of;

  - Clingy

  - Attention-seeking behaviour inappropriately directed at all adults
• • zeanah et al research: findings>>>

  - 74% of the control group were classed as securely attached

  - Only 19% of the institiutionalised group were securely attached

  - 44% of the institutionalised showed signs of disinihibited attachment

  - Less than 20 % for control
• effects of instiutionalisation :disinhibited attachment>>>

  - This is where they are very friendly and affectionate towards familiar people and strangers

  - Unusual – most kids within their second year show stranger anxiety

  - Rutter (2006) explained that disinhibited attachments an adaption to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachments to form

  - In a poor institutions like those in Romania, a kid might have 50 carers but doesnt spend enough time with any to form a secure attachment
• effects of instutionalisation: - intellectual disability (retardation)>>>

  - In rutter study, most showed retardation when the arrived in the UK

  - However, most that were adopted before 6 months caught up with the control group by the age of 4

  - Like emotional development , damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalistaion can be recovered if adoption takes place before the age of 6 months – when attachment forms
• ao3 real world application>>> (1/2)

  • Helped improve conditions for kids growing up outside their family home

  - Studies on the Romanian orphanages improved psychologists understanding of the effects of early institutional care and how to prevent the worst effects (Langton 2006)

  - This led to improvements within care systems for kids

  • e.g. they now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child

  - Now tend to have 1 or 2 key workers who are the centre of their care
• ao3 real world application>>> (2/2)

  • Institutional care is now seen as an undesirable option, so more people are now look into foster care and adoption

  - … gives kids in institutional care chance to develop normal attachment and avoid disinhibited attachments
• ao3 fewer confounding variables + cp>>> (1/2)

  - There's a lack of confounding variables

  - There's many orphan studies before the use of romanian orphans (e.g. orphans from WW2)

  - Many had experienced varying degrees of trauma – difficult to establish the effects of neglect, physical and emotional abuse from institutional care alone

  - Kids from romanian orphanages had been handed over by loving parents who could afford to keep them

  - .. means results were less to have confounding variables from other negative early experiences ( higher internal validity)
• ao3 fewer confounding variables + cp>>> (2/2)

  cp// However studying kids from Romanian orphanages may have brought different confounding variables

  - Quality of care in these institutions were poor- kids receive little comfort of intellectual stimulation

  - … means harmful effects seen in Romanian orphans may represent the effect of poor institutional care rather than institutional care in general
• ao3 lack of adult data on adult development>>>

  - Latest data from ERA study looked at kid in their early to mid 20s

  - Means they don’t currently have data to answer questions about the long-term effects of early institutional care

  - This is time consuming to gather data because it would require a longitudinal study – same ppts are followed over long periods of time

  - .. means it will take time for us to know the long-term effects for Romanian Oprhans