romanian orphans

• institutionalisation:

  • refers to places such as prisons, hospitals or orphanages where people live for long continuous periods of time
  • term for effects of living in such places - often little emotional care
• orphan studies:

  • children placed in care because parents cant look after them
• nicolai ceaucescu:

  • required romanian women to have 5 children
  • many parents couldnt afford to keep children - instead placed into large orphanages in poor conditions
  • after 1989, romanian orphans adopted
• Rutter et al (English + Romanian Adoptee Study) procedure:

  • 165 romanian orphans, specifically by uk families
  • aim of ERA was to investigate to extent that care could make up for poor experiences
  • at ages 4,6,11,15,22-25 years, orphans has physical, emotional + cognitive development assessed
  • group of 52 british children used as control group
• English + Romaninan adoptee study findings:

  • when arriving - 1/2 showed signs of delayed intellectual development + were undernourished
  • age 11 - children showed different rates of recovery related to age of adoption IQ(<6m = 102, 6m-2yrs = 86, >2yrs = 77)
  • Beckett et al - differences remained at 16
  • Kennedy et al -ADHD was more common at 15 and 22-25
• romanian orphans in terms of attachment :

  • difference between whether children was adopted before or after 6 months
  • those after 6 months = disinhibited attachment, <6 months = rare
• disinhibited attachment:

  • attention seeking behaviour + clinginess towards both familiar + unfamiliar adults
• Zeanah et al - Bucharest Early Intervention Project procedure:

  • 95 romanian children (12 -31 months) who spent most of lives in institution -compared to control group of 50 children who never spent time in institution
  • children were assessed using strange situation - carers were asked about unusual social behaviour (measure of disinhibited attachment)
• Bucharest Early Intervention Project findings:

  • orphan group = 19% type B, control = 74%
  • orphan group = 65% disorganised attachment - needing closeness + rejecting it
  • interviews = disorganised attachment observed in 44% or orphan group, <20% in control group
• intellectual disability:

  • rutter - most had intellectual disabilities apart from those adopted before 6 months that caught up with control group
  • development can recover, provided adoption takes place before 6 months
• disinhibited attachment part 2:

  • most were equally friendly + affectionate to familiar people + strangers - lack of stranger anxiety for age
  • rutter - disinhibited attachment = typical adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during sensitive periods for attachment formation
• EVALUATION: real life application to improving conditions

  • rutter - understanding effects of institution effects + how to prevent worst of effects + inform people of care (Langton)
  • instead of multiple caregivers for child, implemented key worker systems to provide emotional care - 1 worker = reduce in disorganised attachment
  • children in institutions have opportunity to develop healthy attachments
• EVALUATION: fewer cofounding variables

  • prior orphan studies - children often experienced trauma/neglect/violence - difficult to detangle effects of CVs from institutions
  • romanian orphans - children handed over by loving parents, mainly institutionalisation was measured
  • easier to observe effects of institutionalisation due to fewer CVs
• EVALUATION: lack of adult data

  • most recent data from ERA study investigated children in 20s - dont have all data to answer questions on longer term effects
  • some questions involve lifetime prevalence of mental health problems + ability to form successful parental/romantic relationships - takes longer time to gather data (longitudinal)
  • takes time before we know long term effects, may be possible for later adopted children to catch up