Effects of institutionalisation

• institutionalisation 


  when children are cared for by the state or

  • living away from a family environment, such as in a children’s home or hospital.
• Deprivation vs Privation


  deprivation: not receiving suitable emotional care from a primary attachment figure, this can happen with frequent or extended absences from caregiver

  privation: more sever, total lack of care so no ability to form attachment bond
• institutional privation


  the fall of the Romanian government in 1990's led to discovery of 170,000 abandoned children living in privation in orphanages. they lacked physical and emotional care, many malnourished and abused.

  • many of these children were adopted into loving western families
  • Rutter conducted longitudinal study of Romanian orphans who were adopted into British families
• Rutter et al (2007) procedure: 


  • Studied a group of about 165 Romanian orphans. Grouped into those adopted under 6 months, between 6 months and two years and those older than two years
  • and assessed them at 4,6,11 and 15, in terms of psychological, emotional and physical development.
  •  These results were compared to 50 children adopted in Britain at roughly the same time, which acted as a control group.
• Rutter: main findings 


  • The majority of orphans were malnourished.
  • those adopted before 6 months of age had an IQ 25 points higher than those adopted after 2 years of age, as also demonstrated by Goldman.
  • Those adopted after 6 months displayed signs of disinhibited attachment (a type of disorganised attachment), whereas those adopted before 6 months rarely showed such signs.
  • In a small number of cases, quasi-autism tendencies were identified, with children having problems understanding meaning of social contexts
• Rutters research suggests:


  adoption within the first 6 months is important as the rate of recovery depends on age at adoption, and effects of privation in institutions are severe and long-lasting

  • however many people adopted after 2 years show recovery, suggesting the critical period is a sensitive period
• (weakness of Rutter) low ecological validity

  very low ecological validity because the conditions of the Romanian orphanages were especially poor. For example, the orphanages did not provide any intellectual stimulation for the orphans, which may have had a larger impact on their intellectual development compared to maternal deprivation as a single cause. Cases of abuse were also frequently reported. Since the average orphanage would have considerably better conditions, this suggests that the findings cannot be generalised beyond the research setting they were found in.
• (weakness) focus on short term


  A key methodological issue associated with Rutter’s study is the focus on short-term recovery, rather than long-term rates. For example, just because a child adopted at the age of 3 years olds does not exhibit normal intellectual development at age 4, does not necessarily mean that the child will not achieve normal development at a later point in their lives. Therefore, to increase the validity of the conclusions drawn, it would have been better to carry out the study across a longer time scale.
• (strength of rutter) practical application

  the research has changed policies around adoption and care in orphanages and other institutional settings

  • for example, critical workers in institutions give higher level of care to infants; there is a focus on ensuring tan early age of adoption and adoptive families are carefully screened
• (strength of rutter) reliable conclusions 


  The main advantage of Rutter’s study, compared to other adoption studies, is that he was able to study the effects of institutionalisation in isolation through removing the confounding and extraneous variables of PTSD and trauma often associated with war orphans. This increases the confidence that researchers can place in drawing reliable conclusions about the effects of institutionalisation and the displayed differential rates of recovery.
• Hodges and Tizard


  A self-report questionnaire on social difficulties was completed by adolescents and finally, teachers completed a postal questionnaire, focusing on the adolescents' relationships with teachers and peers. The findings revealed that maternal deprivation was overcome to a large extent by adopted children, with them going on to develop stronger and longer lasting attachments to adoptive parents once placed in families in comparison to restored and institutionalised groups who made limited recoveries
• Hodges and Tizard findings evaluation 


  • Hodges and Tizard’s research can be seen to be ethical, as it used a natural experiment meaning that the independent variable was naturally occurring, rather than being deliberately manipulated by a researcher.
  • Lacks random allocation – As children were already placed in the institution, participants were not randomly allocated to conditions, which means that individual differences between the children could influence the findings in unanticipated ways.