Romanian Orphan Studies: Effects of Institutionalisation (AQA AS Psychology)

Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation

• The effects of deprivation can be researched by studying the experience of orphans

  • This is often referred to as the effects of institutionalisation (if the child has been raised in an orphanage or children's home)

• Romania, Europe, had many orphanages due to the particularly harsh laws laid down by the communist dictator Ceaușescu

  • During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s families were under the obligation to have large families (contraception and abortion were banned)

  • Children who could not be cared for by their families were put into orphanages

• After the regime's end in 1989, the orphanages were unveiled to the wider world and gave a unique, yet tragic, opportunity for psychologists to study the effects of institutionalisation

Rutter et al.orphan studies

• Rutter et al. (2010) studied a group of Romanian orphans from the 1990s onwards as part of the English and Romanian Adoptee (ERA) study

• Procedure

  • The study involves 165 Romanian children who spent their childhood years in Romanian orphanages (i.e. they were institutionalised)

    • 111 of these orphans were adopted before the age of two

    • 54 of the orphans were adopted by the age of four

  • Each adoptee was assessed at regular intervals to determine their physical, social and cognitive development

  • Interviews were conducted with the orphans' teachers and adoptive parents

  • The progress of the adopted children was compared with a control group of 52 British adopted children, adopted before the age of six months

• Findings

  • Initially, the Romanian orphans under-performed compared to the British control group on all measures of physical, social and cognitive development

  • By the age of four the Romanian children who had been adopted before the age of six months were at the same level as the British children

  • Developmental delays persisted in a minority of individuals who were institutionalised after the age of six months and had not been adopted until after this age

    • These developmental delays manifested in the forming of attachments and relationships with others - disinhibited attachment

  • The findings showed that the age of adoption was key in the developmental progress made by the Romanian children

    • Children adopted before the age of six months had a mean IQ of 102

    • Children adopted between the ages of six months and two years had a mean IQ Of 86

    • Those adopted after the age of two years had a mean IQ of 77

Zeanah et al. orphan studies

• Zeanah et al. (2005) conducted research into Romanian orphans in the Bucharest Early Intervention (BEI) project

• Procedure

  • 95 Romanian orphans aged 12-31 months comprised the sample

  • A control group comprised 50 children who had never lived in an institution

  • The Strange Situation was used to measure attachment

  • Measures of disinhibited attachment were also assessed using feedback from caregivers

• Findings

  • Zeanah et al. found that 74% of the control group were classified as securely attached

  • Only 19% of the Romanian children were securely attached

  • Disinhibited attachment behaviour was seen in 44% of the institutionalised children, whilst this behaviour was seen in less than 20% of the control group

Evaluation

Strengths

• There is good real-world application of the Romanian orphan studies

  • There is a greater understanding now of how institutionalisation can affect the physical, social, emotional and cognitive development of children

  • This has led to improvements in conditions of looked-after children in orphanages and foster care

  • Institutional care is now avoided with a higher effort being placed on adoption or foster care

  • Adoptions are aimed to happen within the first week of a baby's birth where possible to ensure attachments can be made with adoptive parents

• The Romanian orphan studies had few confounding variables

  • Children from the Romanian orphans had commonalities

    • Most had been given up by loving families (who were too poor to care for their large number of children) rather than being institutionalised because of war, abuse, parental death or other traumatic events

    • This means that fewer confounding variables would affect the findings and thus the studies have higher internal validity

Limitations

• The Romanian orphan studies had confounding variables (to counterargue the point above)

  • The Romanian children that formed part of the studies were not just suffering from emotional neglect

    • There was a lack of physical care and intellectual stimulation

  • This means that the findings of the orphan studies may be due to poor institutional care, rather than just the fact they were institutionalised at all

  • Therefore the results cannot be generalised to all children of institutionalisation

• The data was not followed into adulthood

  • There is a lack of data from the Romanian orphans in their adult lives

  • This raises questions about the long-term impacts of institutionalisation such as:

    • mental health

    • forming adult relationships, including marriage and parenthood

    • maintaining employment and careers

  • This means that the children who had not progressed in line with the control groups may have done so if the data had been gathered into adulthood