Romanian orphan studies- institutionalisation

• Research on maternal deprivation has turned to orphan studies as a means of studying the effects of deprivation on emotional and intellectual development
• A tragic opportunity to look at the effects of institutional care and the consequent institutionalisation arose in Romania in the 1990s
• Former President Nicolal Ceaucescu required Romanian women to have five children
• Many Romanian parents could not afford to keep their children and the children ended up in huge orphanages in very poor conditions
• After the 1989 Romanian revolution many of the children were adopted, some by British parents
• Rutter et al.'s research procedure

  1. Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans for many years as part of the English and Romanian adoptee (ERA) study

  2. Adopted by families in the UK

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

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

  5. Used a group of UK adopted children as a control group
• Zeanah et al's research procedure

  1. Assessed attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care

  2. Compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution

  3. Measured attachment using the Strange Situation

  4. Asked carers about unusual social behaviour including clingy, attention-seeking behaviour directed inappropriately at all adults
• Disinhibited attachment

  Children equally friendly and affectionate towards familiar people and strangers, highly unusual behaviour
• Rutter's explanation of disinhibited attachment

  • Adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during sensitive period for attachment formation
  • In poor quality institutions, child might have 50 carers but doesn't spend enough time with any one to form secure attachment