Attachment : Romanian orphan studies - institutionalisation

Question 1

Define institutionalisation

Answer 1

Institutionalisation is a term for the effects of living in an institutional setting (eg a hospital or orphanage) for long periods of time, with very little emotional care provided

Question 2

What led to so many Romanian children being sent to orphanages in the 1990’s?

Answer 2

• In Romania in the 1990’s, former president Nicolai Ceaucescu required all women to have 5 children
• pop. increased and poverty increased
• Many Romanian parents could not afford to keep their children so many ended up in huge orphanages with very poor conditions, where they were malnourished and had minimal care from nurses

Question 3

Which two researchers conducted research into the effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 3

Rutter and Zeanah

Question 4

Outline the procedure of Rutter et al.’s research

Answer 4

Rutter et al. :
- aim : to investigate the extent to which good care can make up for poor early experiences in institutions
- 165 Romanian orphans who had been adopted by families in the UK as a part of the ERA (english and romanian adoptee) study
- physical, cognitive and emotional development were assessed over a range of ages 4-25
- 52 children from the UK were adopted at the same time as a control group

Question 5

Outline the findings of Rutter et al.’s research

Answer 5

• when Romanian children first arrived in the UK, 1/2 showed signs of delayed intellectual development and most were very malnourished
• age 11-16: mean IQ of the children adopted before the age of 6 months was higher that the mean IQ of those adopted after the age of 2
• children adopted after the age of 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment

Question 6

What characteristics are associated with a disinhibited attachment?

Answer 6

Attention-seeking, clinginess, social behaviour directed towards all adults both familiar and unfamiliar

Question 7

Outline the procedure of Zeanah et al.’s research

Answer 7

Zeanah et al.:
- carried out the BEI project in which he assessed attachment, using the strange situation, in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care
- their behaviour was compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution
- carers were also asked about any signs of disinhibited attachment

Question 8

Outline the findings of Zeanah et al.’s research

Answer 8

• 74 % of control group were securely attached whereas only 19 % of institutional group were securely attached
• 44 % of institutional group showed signs of disinhibited attachment

Question 9

Describe disinhibited attachment as an effect of institutionalisation

Answer 9

• Attention-seeking and clingy
• Children are equally friendly and affectionate towards both familiar people and complete strangers
• Rutter suggested this could be due to living with so many diff caregivers during the sensitive period for forming attachments - in Romanian orphanages, children may have had up to 50 carers but didn’t spend enough time with any of them to actually form an attachment

Question 10

Describe intellectual disability as an effect of institutionalisation

Answer 10

• in Rutter’s study, most children showed signs of intellectual disability, however most of the ones who were adopted at 6 months old were able to catch up to the control group by the age of 4

Question 11

Describe the strengths of the Romanian orphan studies

Answer 11

1. They improved psychologists’ understanding of the negative effects of early institutional care, which has led to improvements to the conditions experienced by children growing up in institutions
   - eg Zeanah et al. carried out the strange situation on 95 Romanian children and found that 44 % of them showed signs of disinhibited attachment, as a result of having lived with so many different caregivers
   - due to these findings, children’s homes now focus on each child having just 1-2 key workers who can give them emotional care
   This means that the Romanian orphan studies have been applied to real life situations to help improve the lives and attachment types of of children growing up in institutional care
2. Lack of CVs
   - eg nearly all of the children who had been sent to Romanian orphanages came from loving families who simply couldn’t afford to keep them
   - this means the results were less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences like neglect or trauma, so the studies have higher internal validity
   - however, studying children from Romanian orphanages may come with other CVs
   - eg the care in Romanian institutions at the time was extremely poor - this means that the harmful effects seen in the Romanian studies may have been due to poor institutional care and not institutional care as a whole

Question 12

What is a limitation of the Romanian orphan studies

Answer 12

• Lack of data on their adult development so researchers don’t know much from them about the long term effects of early institutional care
• it will take many years to gather data due to the longitudinal design of the study
  This means it will take some time before researchers are able to fully understand the long-term effects of Romanian orphanages