Romanian Orphan Studies into Institutionalisation

• Define 'institutionalisation'

  A term for the effects of living in an institutional setting. This could be a hospital or an orphanage where people live for long, continuous periods of time. Usually, these places provide very little emotional care.
• Rutter et al.'s (2011) procedure

  - Rutter et al. followed 165 Romanian orphans as part of the English and Romanian Adoptee study (ERA).

  - The orphans had been adopted by English families, and the aim was to investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.

  - Physical and emotional development was assessed at ages 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years.

  - There was also a control group of 52 children from the UK who were adopted around the same time as the orphans.
• Rutter et al.'s (2011) findings

  - When the orphans first arrived in the UK, half of them showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely malnourished.

  - At 11 years, the adopted orphans showed differing rates of recovery that were related to the age they were adopted. The mean IQ of those adopted before 6 months was 102, compared to an IQ of 86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years, and an IQ of 77 for those adopted after 2 years old.

  - Beckett et al. (2010) found that these differences were maintained at age 16, and Kennedy et al. (2016) found that ADHD was more common in 15 and 22-25 year old samples.

  - Children adopted after 6 months old showed signs of disinhibited attachment, exhibiting attention-seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults. Contrastingly, children adopted before 6 months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment.
• Zeanah et al.'s (2005) procedure

  - Zeanah et al. conducted the Bucharest Early Intervention project (BEI), and assessed attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 month, who had, on average, spent 90% of their lives in institutional care.

  - They were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never been institutionalised.

  - The participants' attachment type was assessed using the SS, and carers were asked about unusual behaviour that showed signs of disinhibited attachment, e.g. attention-seeking, clinginess and behaviour directed inappropriately towards adults.
• Zeanah et al.'s (2005) findings

  - They found that 74% of the control group were classed as securely attached using the SS, compared to 19% of the institutional group.

  - The description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to 20% of the control group.
• The effects of institutionalisation

  - Disinhibited attachment: Children who spent their early lives in an institution often formed disinhibited attachments.

  - Rutter (2006) explained disinhibited attachment as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation. In poor-quality institutions such as those in Romania, a child might have 50 carers, but doesn't spend enough time with any of them to form a secure attachment.

  
  

  - Intellectual disability: In the ERA, most children showed signs of intellectual disability when they arrived in Britain.

  - However, most of those adopted before 6 months caught up with the control group by the age of 4.

  - It appears that, like emotional development, damage to intellectual development can be recovered through adoption, though this needs to take place before 6 months
• Evaluating Romanian orphan studies: Real-world application


  - A strength of the orphan studies is that it has led to the improvement of the living conditions of children growing up outside the family home.

  - Studying the Romanian orphans has improved psychologists' understanding of the effects of early institutional care and how to prevent the worst of these effects.

  - This has led to the improvement of the conditions of looked-after children.

  - For example, children's homes now avoid having a large number of caregivers for each child, but rather, have one or two key workers who play a central role in their emotional care.

  - Institutional care is also now seen as an unviable option for looked-after children. Considerable effort is made to ensure they are fostered or adopted.

  - This means that children in institutional care can have a chance of developing normal attachments and disinhibited attachment is avoided.
• Evaluating Romanian orphan studies: Fewer confounding variables (with counterpoint)

  - Another strength is the lack of confounding variables.

  - Before the Romanian orphan studies, many orphans were studied during WW2. These orphans had varying degrees of trauma, and it is difficult to disentangle the effects of neglect, physical abuse and bereavement from those in institutional care.

  - Contrastingly, the Romanian orphans had mainly had loving parents who couldn't afford to raise them, so they had no previous trauma.

  - This means that results were much less likely to be confounded by other early negative experiences, leading to a higher internal validity.

  
  

  - Counterpoint: Conversely, studying Romanian orphanages may have introduced different confounding variables.

  - The quality of care in the orphanages was extremely poor, with children receiving little intellectual stimulation or comfort.

  - This means that the harmful effects seen in Romanian orphan studies may represent the effects of poor institutional care rather than institutional care as a whole.
• Evaluating Romanian orphan studies: Lack of adult data

  - A limitation of the Romanian orphan studies is that there is a current lack of data on adult development

  - The latest data from Rutter's ERA study looked at children in their early-mid 20s, meaning that we don't have the data to answer some interesting research questions about the long-term effectsof institutionalisation. This could include the lifetime prevalence of mental health problems, and success in forming and maintaining romantic and parental relationships.

  - It will take a long time to gather this information as it is a longitudinal study.

  - This means that it will be some time before we have a more complete understanding of the long-term effects for Romanian orphans. Perhaps it is possible that late-adopted children are able to catch up.
• Evaluating Romanian orphan studies: Social sensitivity


  - The studies are socially sensitive as the results show that late-adopted children typically have poorer developmental outcomes.

  - Results have been published while the children have been growing up, meaning that their parents, teachers and anyone who knew them might have lowered their expectations and treated the orphans differently, perhaps creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  - Conversely, a lot has been learned from the studies that might benefit future institutionalised or potentially institutionalised children.