Effects on institutionalisation

• Institutionalisation is the concept of being in a particular setting (institution) for a long period of time that someone begins to suffer negative consequences.
• Orphan studies background. Romanian president in the 1980s ordered women to have 5 children each many could afford to look after all 5 so they ended up in orphanages, the orphanages then exceeded its capacity and many British couple ended up adopting the orphans.
• ERA study 2011 (English and Romanian adoptees) performed by Rutter et al.
• Procedure- studied 165 Romanian children over 10 years who sent their early lives living in Romanian institutions. 111 were adopted before the age of 2, 54 before the age of 4. Tested at ages 4,6,11and15 on their physical cognitive and social development through interviews with parents and teachers. Compared to a control group of 52 British adopted before 6 months.
• Findings- at the time of adoption Romanian orphans were smaller and weighed less than the British control group and were classified as mentally retarded. Around age 4 Romanians started to catch up, almost all adopted before 6 months developed better.
• Those adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment(attention seeking, clingy, no stranger separation anxiety as there was no primary attachment). This suggests that 6 months is a critical period for forming attachments and what happens during those months will have long lasting effects into the future.
• The Bucharest early intervention project=Zeamah et al 2005
• Zeamah assessed attachment in 136 children aged 12-31 who had spent on average 90% of their life in an institution. Compared these to a control group who spent their life in a "normal family".
• Results- 74% of the institutionalised children did not form secure attachments compared to only 19% of the controls. The majority of the institutionalised children formed insecure avoidant attachments which may be due to lack of emotional support from caregivers. Those who stayed longer in the institution had more severe problems such as hyperactivity and aggression.
• 65% of the institutionalised group were classes as disorganised attachment.
• Disorganised attachment= when infants show contradictory behaviours towards their carer e.g. approach then retreat. It's thought this occurs because they are scared of their main source of comfort so can't trust them. They also don't know how to respond to danger so freeze.
• Lemare + Audut 2006. A longitudinal study on the growth and health of 36 Romanian orphans adopted by Canadian families compared to a control group of children raised in a "normal" Canadian family.
• Data was collected at 3 time points; 11months after adoption, 4.5 yo and 10.5yo
• Findings- first two time points showed adoptees were behind the non institutionalised group but by age 10.5 there were no differences between the groups.
• Disinhibited attachment-equally friendly to familiar people as well as strangers, show no sign of stranger anxiety.
• Mental retardation- stunted intellectual development.