Romanian Orphan studies

• Remembering the PEELs - Romanian Orphans:

  1. Results cant be generalised
  2. Real life applictaion
  3. Longitudinal study
  4. Different theory
• Peels - Romanian Orphans study:

  1. Weakness - cant be generalised - infants in the institution have different (age) and so will get varying amounts of attention from the workers

  • poor generalisabilty
• Peels - Romanian Orphans study:

  2) Strength - real life application - research into institutionalisation helps understanding of improving lives of children in care

  • provides explanatory power
• Peels - Romanian Orphans study:

  3) Strength - longitudinal study - controls for temperament and growing up so confounding variables don't affect the experiment

  • string methodology and high validity
• Peels - Romanian Orphans study:

  4) Weakness - different theory - deprivation isn’t the only negative thing affecting the orphans as they also suffer from malnutrition.

  • partial explanation
• Institution is a place dedicated to a particular task

  e.g. looking after children awaiting adoption or care
• Romania's orphan problem began under the communist rule of Nicolae Ceausescu who banned abortion and denied access to contraception,
• Effects of institutionalisation - Disinhibited attachment:

  • shown by children who have spent their early lives in an institution and are equally friendly towards familiar people and strangers
  • Unusual as most children in their 2nd year show stranger anxiety
• Effects of institutionalisation - Intellectual disability:

  • most children adopted before 6 months old caught up with control group by age 4
• Procedure of Rutter et al (2011):

  •  conducted a longitudinal study on 165 Romanian orphans adopted by British parents 
  • children split into 4 groups
  • Each group was assessed at the ages of 4, 6, 11 and 15
  • At the start of the observations, over half of the Romanian children were suffering from severe malnutrition and a low IQ, showing delayed intellectual development, compared to the control group
• Findings of Rutter et al (2011):

  • At age 6 - those adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment (overly friendly behaviour towards unknown adults) 
  • At age 11 -54%of the children who were adopted after 6 months that had shown disinhibited behaviour, still showed disinhibited behaviour
  • Symptoms of disinhibited attachment include attention-seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed towards all adults
• Age of adoption was also a key factor in attachment type:

  • Those adopted before 6 months, showed signs of a secure normal attachment
  • Those older than 6 months displayed disinhibited attachment
  • At age 11 there was a significant difference between children adopted before 6 months and those adopted later in terms of attachment style and IQ
• Conclusions of Rutter et al (2011):

  Adoption after the first 6 months of life, means the child will have longer-term effects of institutionalisation

  • However, recovery is possible if children are able to form attachments - They may have slower development rather than irreversible damage
• Conclusions of Rutter et al (2011):

  This finding challenges Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation as Rutter shows recovery is possible
• Aim of Rutter et al (2011):

  To investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
• Bucharest Study 1

  • Zeanah et al (2005) conducted the Bucharest early intervention project which assessed attachment in 95 Romanian children ages 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care
  • compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution and their attachment type was measured using the Strange Situation
• Bucharest Study 2 - Findings

  • 74% of the control group were classed as securely attached in the Strange situation however only 19% of the institutional group were securely attached
  • Diainhibited attachments applied to 44% of the institutionalised children and less than 20% of the control children
• Rutter et al's Romanian Orphan study had 56 control british adoptees
• Bowlby proposed that the quality of an infants' primary attachment would have a positive correlation with the quality of later attachment's due to the internal working model
• Institutionalisation =the effects of living in an institutional setting, like a hospital or an orphanage where people live for a long, continuous periods of time

  • very little emotional care provided
• Findings of Rutter et al (2011) - IQ Scores:

  • adopted before 6 months - 102
  • adopted between 6 months/2 years - 86
  • adopted after 2 years - 77
• Rutter explained disinhibited attachment as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period