Institutionalisation

Question 1

Why were Romanian Orphan studies used to assess maternal deprivation?

Answer 1

• in the 1990s the former president of Romania required Romanian women to have 5 children and a lot of parents could not afford this so they ended up in huge orphanages
• after the Romanian revolution many of the children were then adopted some by British parents

Question 2

What is Rutter et al.’s research into Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 2

• Rutter (2011) followed group of 165 Romanian orphans who had been adopted by British parents
• physical, cognitive and emotional development was assessed at multiple ages and compared to British control group
• findings showed a lower mean IQ showing delayed intellectual development and that the majority were severely undernourished
• if adopted after 6 months then then they showed disinhibited attachment which includes clinginess and attention-seeking

Question 3

What is Zeanah et al.’s research into Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 3

• Zeanah et al. (2005) assessed 95 Romanian children who had spent an average of 90% of their life in an institution
• their attachment was then measured with the strange situation and carers were asked about any unusual behaviour that would suggest a disinhibited attachment type
• findings showed 74% of control group were securely attached and 19% of institutional group were

Question 4

What are the effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 4

• disinhibited attachment = children are equally affectionate towards strangers and familiar people due to living with multiple caregivers in the sensitive period e.g 50+ but cant spend enough time with any of them to make an attachment
• intellectual disability = most adopted before 6 months were able to catch up by the age of 4

Question 5

What are 2 strengths of Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 5

• strength of real-world application to improve conditions of children is institutions as children now have key workers who play a central role and institutional care is now seen as undesirable option
• strength of lack of confounding variables as many of the Romanian orphans weren’t in institutions because they had experienced trauma but just because their families couldn’t afford them - high internal validity

Question 6

What are 2 limitations of Romanian orphan studies?

Answer 6

• limitation of lack of adult data ad study is still ongoing and we cant yet research the long-term effects of institutionalisation as the orphans are only in their mid 20s due to its longitudinal nature - lacking reliability
• limitation of social sensitivity as the results show that late-adopted children have poor development and results are published while the children have been growing up meaning that their peers may have lowered their expectations of them leading to a self fulfilling prophecy - ethically poor and lacking in validity