Att - Romanian orphan studies

Question 1

What did the Romanian orphan study look into?

Answer 1

• Effect of institutionalisation i.e. the effects of spending significant time in an orphanage or children’s home
• Privation

Question 2

English and Romania Adoptees study (ERA) and its evaluation

Answer 2

• Rutter; longitudinal study (studied over a long period of time)
• Group 1: 111 Romanian Orphans (Institutionalised)
• Group 2: 52 British adoptees (Not institutionalised) (Control group)
  4, 6 and 11
  Found: Those Romanian orphans adopted before 6 months had the same level of emotional development as the UK children who were adopted at the same age. Those Romanian children who were older than 6 months showed signs of insecure attachment and social problems, the UK children adopted at the same age didn’t show the same problem

Conclusion:
- The effect of privation (where child never forms an attachment with caregiver) can be reversed if an attachment starts to form before 6 months old. Long-term effects are more permanent if this doesn’t occur. Maternal deprivation on its own does not cause permanent effects, UK children were separated but didn’t show any problems

EV:
- Real-life application; has led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions. e.g. instead of many caregivers focus on a main one
- The conditions the Romanian orphans were in may have been so bad that it may not be generalisable due to unusual situational variable