10. Institutionalisation

Question 1

What is institutionalisation?

Answer 1

The effects of living in an institutional setting- e.g. hospital or orphanage- where children are for long, continuous periods of time

Question 2

What are institutionalisation studies interested in?

Answer 2

Effects of institutional care on children’s attachment and subsequent development

Question 3

Why are institutionalisation studies natural experiments?

Answer 3

Unethical to manipulate variables as Bowlby predicted that institutional care has irreversible effect on child’s well-being

Question 4

Describe the context of the Romanian Orphan studies

Answer 4

• Communist-ruled Romania required women to have many children to boost population
• Many abandoned children at state-run underfunded orphanages
• Regime collapsed in 1989 and children adopted mainly by western families

Question 5

What do the Romanian Orphan studies study?

Answer 5

Effects of privation (not deprivation)- infant denied attachment opportunity

Question 6

What is the aim of the Romanian Orphan studies?

Answer 6

Seeing if effects of adoption could be reversed after adoption

Question 7

What type of studies were the Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 7

Longitudinal

Question 8

Who did the Romanian Orphan studies involve?

Answer 8

165 Romanian orphans (111 under 2, 54 under 4) and control group of 52 British children (adopted under 6 months)

Question 9

When and how were orphans assessed?

Answer 9

• At age 4, 6, 11 and 15

- Parent and teacher interviews & researcher personally assessing physical and congestive development

Question 10

How did the Romanian orphans’ development compare with British adoptees initially?

Answer 10

Romanian orphans behind in all areas

Question 11

Which Rohan’s were most likely to catch up with British counterparts by age four?

Answer 11

6 months (almost all from this group did)

Question 12

How did the orphans’ time in institution correlate with their IQ?

Answer 12

IQ decreased with time in institution

Question 13

What is disinhibited attachment?

Answer 13

Children are equally friendly towards familiar and unfamiliar (don’t show stranger anxiety)

Question 14

Which orphans were most most likely to display disinhibited attachment?

Answer 14

More common in Romanian orphans and increased with time in institution

Question 15

When did signs of disinhibited attachment in orphans reduce by?

Answer 15

Age 11

Question 16

Why can the effects of institutionalisation be recovered if adoption occurs within 6 months?

Answer 16

These infants are still in asocial stage so do not yet distinguish between people or form attachments

Question 17

What did Rutter suggest was the reason for disinhibited attachment in institutionalised children?

Answer 17

Adaptation to living multiple caregivers in sensitive period so they never have one secure attachment

Question 18

What did Rutter suggest about delayed intellectual development in the Romanian orphans?

Answer 18

Could catch up by age of 4 if adopted before age of 6 months

Question 19

What happened to physical development of children of Romanian orphans?

Answer 19

Physically small (due to lack of emotional care, not malnourishment)

Question 20

What improvements did Langston (2006) find in institutions after the Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 20

Key workers so that a child has one constant person to attach to and avoid disinhibited attachment

Question 21

What confounding variable did previous institutionalisation studies have?

Answer 21

Other children had previous trauma, Romanian orphans didn’t

Question 22

How were the Romanian orphans studies better than previous studies?

Answer 22

Confounding variable of trauma eradicated so increased internal validity

Question 23

Why may the Romanian orphan studies not be generalisable?

Answer 23

Conditions particularly (poor relationships and intellectual stimulation) so many situational variables

Question 24

How may there be a confounding variable in the Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 24

Not randomly assigned to variables (unethical to manipulate) so, for example, children adopted early on may have naturally been more sociable

Question 25

Why can’t the long term effects of institutionalisation be fully understood?

Answer 25

Studies were only followed into mid-teens, so development difficulties in adulthood can’t be measured e.g. Quinton (1984) found women who grew up in care were more likely to put their children in care