Institutionalisation

Question 1

What is institutional care?

Answer 1

Refers to situations where children spend part of their childhood in a hospital, an orphanage or a residential children’s home.

Question 2

What is institutionalisation?

Answer 2

The adverse effects on children of being placed in an institution; these effects can influence cognitive and social development.

Question 3

When did Hodges and Tizard complete their ‘effects of privation and institutional care’ study?

Answer 3

1989.

Question 4

What was the aim of Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study?

Answer 4

Studied the effects of privation but their study also tells us about the effects of institutional care.

They investigated the permanence of the effects of privation considering both emotional and social effects in adolescence.

Question 5

How many children were taken into one institution before the age of 4 months? What type of sample was used?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Procedure)

Answer 5

65 children.

Forming an opportunity sample.

Question 6

What type of experiment was this? What design was used - how?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Procedure)

Answer 6

Natural experiment.

Matched pairs design, as the institutionalised children were compared with a control group raised at home.

Question 7

Hodges and Tizard’s study was a longitudinal study. Why?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Procedure)

Answer 7

It took place from age on entering care to 16 years.

Question 8

In Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study - each child had been looked after on average by how many different caregivers by the age of 2.

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Procedure)

Answer 8

24.

Question 9

By the age of 4 years, how many children had been adopted?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Procedure)

Answer 9

24.

Question 10

By the age of 4 years, how many children had been restored to their natural home?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Procedure)

Answer 10

15.

Question 11

By the age of 4 years, how many children remained in the institution.

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Procedure)

Answer 11

26.

Question 12

The children in the institute were assessed at what ages? What were they tested on? How were they tested?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Procedure)

Answer 12

The children were assessed at the ages 4, 8, and 16 on emotional and social competence through interview and self-report questionnaires.

Question 13

Did the institutional children form attachments at 4 years?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Findings)

Answer 13

No.

Question 14

What existed between the adopted and restored children at the age of 8?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Findings)

Answer 14

Significant differences.

Question 15

At the age of 8 and 16, most of the adopted children had what?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Findings)

Answer 15

Formed close relationships with their caregiver.

Question 16

At the age of 8 and 16, had restored children formed close relationships with their caregivers? Explain?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Findings)

Answer 16

Not many did.

This is because their parents were often unsure they wanted their children back.

Question 17

At the age of 8 and 16, what was evident in both adopted and restore children?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Findings)

Answer 17

Negative social effects.

They were attention seeking and had difficulty in forming peer relationships.

Question 18

At the age of 16, what were adopted families like? What are restored families?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Findings)

Answer 18

The family relationships of the adopted children were as good as those of families in which none of the children had been removed from the family home.

However, children who had returned to their families showed little affection for their parents, and their parents weren’t very affectionate towards them.

Question 19

At the age of 16, what was similar between the adopted and restore adolescents?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Findings)

Answer 19

Both groups of adolescents were less likely than adolescents in ordinary families to regard other adolescents as sources of emotional support.

Question 20

Were the adopted children better adjusted than Bowlby would have predicted?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Findings)

Answer 20

yes, overall, the adopted children were better adjusted than would have been predicted by Bowlby.

Question 21

What do findings show about the effects of privation and institutionalisation? Why? Why not?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Conclusions)

Answer 21

The findings show that some effects of privation and institutionalisation can be reversed.

This is because the children were able to form attachments in spite of their privation and experience of institutionalisation.

However, some privation effects are long-lasting, as shown by the difficulties the institutionalised children faced at school.

Question 22

What is the most important factor when moving out of institutional care? Who is this most applicable for?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Conclusions)

Answer 22

What seems to be especially important is for children who have been institutionalised to move to a loving environment.

That was more likely to be the case for children who were adopted than those who returned to their own families.

Question 23

The decision as to whether any given child should return to its own family or be adopted depended on complex issues to do with family dynamics and the child’s wishes. How is this a limitation?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Limitations)

Answer 23

It is hard to know precisely why adopted children suffered fewer long-term negative effects of institutionalisation than those restored to their families.

Question 24

The children were assessed at the ages 4, 8, and 16 on emotional and social competence through interview and self-report questionnaires. How is this a limitation?

(Hodges and Tizard’s 1989 study)
(Limitations)

Answer 24

The interview and self-report data may provide a somewhat distorted perspective - perhaps some of the adolescents exaggerated or minimised the problems they were having with their lives.

Question 25

When did Rutter complete his ERA study?

(Rutter’s ERA)

Answer 25

1998.

Question 26

What was the aim of Rutter’s ERA study.

(Rutter’s ERA)

Answer 26

To assess whether loving and nurturing care could overturn the effects of privation the children had suffered in Romanian Orphanages.

Question 27

What type of study was Rutter’s ERA study?

(Rutter’s ERA)

Answer 27

Longitudinal study.

Question 28

What was the IV and the DV of Rutter’s ERA study?

(Rutter’s ERA)

Answer 28

IV: age of adoption.

DV: children’s level of cognitive functioning.

Question 29

Outline each condition used in Rutter’s ERA study.

(Rutter’s ERA)

Answer 29

Condition 1: Children adopted before the age of 6 months.

Condition 2: Children adopted between 6 months and 2 years.

Condition 3: Children adopted after 2 years.

Question 30

How many Romanian orphans were included in the study? What were they initially assessed for?

(Rutter’s ERA)

Answer 30

111.

Height, head circumference, and cognitive functioning.

Question 31

How many British adopted children were assessed (as well as the 111 Romanian orphans)?

(Rutter’s ERA)

Answer 31

52.

Question 32

Around how many of the Romanian orphans were retarded in cognitive functioning at initial assessment? What else were they?

(Rutter’s ERA)
(Findings)

Answer 32

Around 50% of the Romanian orphans were retarded in cognitive functioning at initial assessment.

Most were underweight.

The control group did not show these deficits.

Question 33

At the age of 4 years, the Romanian orphans showed what? Orphans adopted before 6 months of age were doing as well as who?

(Rutter’s ERA)
(Findings)

Answer 33

At the age of 4 years, the Romanian orphans showed great improvements in physical and cognitive development, with the orphans adopted before 6 months of age doing as well as the British adopted children.

Question 34

What were the two conclusions made from Rutter’s ERA study?

Answer 34

The negative effects of institutionalisation can be overcome by sensitive, nurturing care.

As the British children (who had been separated from their mothers) did not suffer developmental outcome, it can be seen that separation from carers will not on its own cause negative developmental effects.

Question 35

Outline 2 evaluative points that can be made from Rutter’s ERA study.

Answer 35

Children have only been assessed up to the age of 4 years, so subsequent follow-ups have to be completed to assess the long-term effects of institutionalisation and the effects of subsequent enriching environments.

Only some of the children received detailed clinical investigations, so it is difficult to fully generalise the findings. However, this suggests that Rutter attempt to use an idiographic approach and did not force universal laws by using a nomothetic approach. In this case, he treated many of the orphans personally, making sure validity was maintained.

Because the children were not studied while in the Romanian orphanages, it is not possible to state which aspects of privation were most influential.