Maternal Deprivation and Institutionalisation

• define deprivation

  • occurs when an attachment bond is formed between an infant and caregiver but is broken later in life
• what are the effects of ongoing maternal deprivation?

  • An inability to form attachments in the future (see the Internal Working Model)
  • Affectionless psychopathy (inability to feel remorse)
  • Delinquency (behavioural problems in adolescence)
  • Problems with Cognitive Development
• aim of Bowlby 44 thieves (1944)

  • to see if early separation from the primary caregiver was associated with behavioural disorders.
  • bowlby defined a particular behaviour as affectionless psychopathy to describe individuals who have no sense of shame of guilt
• method of Bowlby 44 thieves (1944)

  • 5-16 years old children of which 44 of the children were criminals and 44 non-criminals
  • Bowlby interviewed the children and the families to create a record of early life expression
• results of Bowlby 44 thieves (1944)

  • bowlby identified 14 of the 44 thieves as affectionless psychopaths
  • 12 out of 14 of these affectionless psychopaths had experienced early and prolonged deprivation
  • only 17% of the 'other thieves' had experienced such separation and 4% of the control group had experienced frequent early separations
• conclusions of Bowlby 44 thieves (1944)

  • findings suggest a link between early separations and later social maladjustement
  • the maternal deprivation hypothesis appears to lead to affectionless psychopathy and antisocial behaviour
• strength of Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

  • real-life application: significant impact on best practice in institutions such as hospitals where infants are likely to experience prolonged separation from caregivers. key changes have occurred due to the new psychological insight into how best to provide quality substitute emotional care in the absence of parents to minimise negative consequences for the child
• limitations of Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation (1)

  • findings are correlational. bowlby found a relationship between deprivation and later behavioural issues but it is not clear that the early separation caused these issues as there could have been other factors involved therefore we cannot establish cause and effect relationship to conclude that separation leads to behavioural issues and affectionless psychopathy
• limitations of Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation (2)

  • theory suggests children who are deprived of an attachment, usually within a critical period of development, will suffer negative long-term consequences. this suggests that an infant's life chances are determined by their early attachment experiences
  • highlights the importance of nature and nurture as he puts forward a critical period of development which demonstrates the importance of a biological mechanism; however, this mechanism is shaped by an infant's interactions, or lack of interactions, with his/her caregiver
• aim of Rutter (2010)

  • examine the long-term effects of institutionalisation in a longitudinal study
• method of rutter (2010)

  • 165 children who had spent their early years in a Romanian orphanage formed the experimental group
  • 111 of these children were adopted between the age of two, while the remaining 54 were adopted before the age of four
  • they were compared to a control group of 52 British children who were adopted before they were 6 months old
  • social, cognitive and physical development of all infants was examined at regular intervals and interviews were conducted with adoptive parents and teachers
• results of rutter (2010)

  • at point of adoption the Romanian orphans showed delayed development in all elements of social, cognitive and physical progress
  • physically smaller, weighed less on average
  • however, almost all the romanian orphan who were adopted before 6 months caught up on these measures of development
  • children adopted after 6 months show significant deficits in terms of social, cognitive and physical development.
  • more likely to experience difficulties with making or maintaining peer relationships and were often categorised as having disinhibited attachment disorder
• conclusion of rutter (2010)

  • institutionalisation can have severe long-term effects on development, especially if children are not provided with adequate emotional caregiving
• strength of rutter (2010)

  • real-world application to social services: study helped change the way that children are looked after, especially when it comes to the adoption process. previously mothers were encouraged to keep their babies for a substantial period. nowadays, infants are adopted as early as one-week old. this demonstrated the benefit of institutionalisation research to help improve the lives of children
  • longitudinal study therefore can assess the short and long-term effects of institutionalisation and subsequent benefits from adoption
• limitations of rutter (2010)

  • suggests infant's life chances are determined by their early experiences and can lead to: physical underdevelopment, intellectual under-functioning, disinhibited attachment and poor parenting. however, not all infants experiences the same negative effects which further highlights the importance of an idiographic approach within institutionalisation research