Romanian orphans

• Romanian Orphans - procedure

  Rutter and Sonuga-Barke did a longitudinal study looking at Romanian and English orphans. 165 Romanian children spent their early lives in institutes in Romania. 111 were adopted before the age of 2, and 54 by the age of 4. Adoptees were tested regularly to assess physical, cognitive and social development. Progress was compared to 52 British children adopted in the UK before the age of 6 months.
• Romanian orphans - findings

  At time of adoption, Romanian orphans were behind the British.

  They were smaller, weighed less and had learning disabilities.

  In follow up studies, significant deficits continued in those who had experienced institutional care.

  Problems with attachments and peer relations.
• La mere & Audet

  It was a longitudinal study of 36 Romanian orphans adopted into Canada. They had deficit in physical growth and health at the age of 4 but this difference disappeared by the age of 10 and half years.

  Recovery from the effects of institutionalisation was therefore possible in terms of physical differences.
• Zeenah et al

  Compared 136 orphans who on average had spent 90% of their lives in an institute compared to control group of Romanian orphans who had never been in an institute. Children assessed in the strange situation and those who had been in an institute, showed signs of disinhibited attachment.
• Effects of institutionalisation

  Physical underdevelopment

  Intellectual under functioning

  Disinhibited attachment

  Poor parenting
• Physical underdevelopment

  Children in institutional care are physically small. Research has shown that a lack of emotional care rather than poor nourishment is the cause of deprivation dwarfism
• intellectual under functioning

  cognitive development is also affected by emotional deprivation
• disinhibited attachment

  a form of insecure attachment where children do not discriminate between who they see is there attachment figure. such children will treat strangers with inappropriate familiarness and may be attention seeking.
• poor parenting

  Quinton compared a group of women who had been raised in institutions with a control group of women who had been raised at home. when the women were in their 20s, the ex-institutionalised women were experiencing difficulties acting as parents.
• Romanian orphans - real life application

  Mothers who wanted to give their baby up for adoption, were encouraged to breastfeed which formed an attachment the infant was then deprived of. now infants are adopted asap to ensure they form a bond with their primary care giver. Singer et al (1985) – today, most babies are adopted within the first week of birth and their development is no different to control groups. Orphanages and care homes now avoid having large numbers of  caregivers for each child and instead have key workers. 
• Strength of Romanian Orphans


  The benefits of what you find out in this research is large and without the studies, we may not know as much as we do about the long term effects of institutionalisation. Some of these studies have shown the effects can disappear after time which provides a valuable insight into what works.

  High internal validity – effects of confounding variables have been controlled for (such as loss and trauma) in the Romanian orphans research that have affected other studies in this area
• Limitation - Romanian orphans

  The Romanian orphans were faced with much more than just emotional deprivation, their physical conditions were also appalling. Lack of cognitive stimulation will also impact in their development and so it is more likely that damage will occur if there is an increase in the number of risk factors. Poor living in care can also lead to poorer living later on, which can also impact on the measures of development.
• Romanian orphans - effects may be due to slower development


  If the children have good quality emotional care, the effects may disappear over time. one of the findings in the study was that at age 11, the last study, less children had disinhibited attachment. the children may simply need more time than normal to learn how to cope. this suggests that development does continue. this is a criticism of the research which implies effects are permanent whereas this may nit be true.