Romanian orphans

• Rutter - English and Romanian adoptee study procedure


  The researchers have followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans who experienced very poor conditions before being adopted in the UK. This longitudinal study has tested the extent to which good care can make up for poor early experiences in institutions. Physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years. The study also followed a control group of 52 adopted children from the UK.
• Rutter - English and Romanian adoptee study findings 


  Half of the orphans showed delayed intellectual development when they came to the UK. At age 11 recovery rates were related to their age at adoption : Those adopted before 6 months had a mean IQ of 102 whereas those adopted after 2 years had a mean IQ of 77

  These differences continued to be apparent at age 16.
• Rutter - English and Romanian adoptee study findings 


  Frequency of disinhibited attachment related to the age at adoption. Children adopted after they were 6 months old had clinginess, attention seeking, and indiscriminate affection to strangers. Whereas this is rare in children adopted before the age of 6 months.
• Rutter - English and Romanian adoptee study conclusions


  These findings supports Bowlby's view that there is a sensitive period in the development of attachments - a failure to form an attachment before the age of 6 months appears to have long lasting effects.
• Effects of institutionalisation

  • Disinhibited attachment - such children tend to be equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know well or total strangers. Tjis may be an adaptation to multiple caregivers.
  • Damage to intellectual development - institutionalised children often show signs of intellectual disability. This effect is not as pronounced if the children are adopted before 6 months of age.
• Evaluation

  One strength of the Romanian orphans study is real world application. Results from this research have led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions. Children's homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child. They have one or two key workers who play a central role. This means children in institutional care have a chance to develop normal attachments and disinhibited attachment is avoided.
• Evaluation

  One limitation is the lack of data on adult development. It is too soon to say for certain whether children suffered permanent effects as we only have data on their development as far as their early twenties. It will be some time before we have information about some key research questions. This means the Romanian orphans studies have not yet yielded their most important findings , some children may catch up.
• Evaluation

  One limitation is social sensitivity. Late adopted children were shown to have low IQ. This might subsequently affect how they are treated by parents, teachers etc and might create a self fulfilling prophecy. On the other hand, much has been learned from the Romanian orphans studies that might benefit future institutionalised or potentially institutionalised children. So the potential benefits of the studies probably outweigh their social sensitivity.