Maternal Deprivation - Effects of Institutionalisation (Romanian Orphanage Studies)

Romanian Orphange Study Sample

165 Romanian children who spent early years in Romanian orphanages - 111 adopted before 2 years, 54 adopted before 4

Evaluative Strengths

+ research has led to improvement in institutional child care, reducing caregivers to key workers, giving children the chance to develop normal attachments vs disinhibited + the study didn't have many children who suffered loss or trauma like other orphan studies, reducing confounding variables & increasing internal validity

Evaluative Limitations

- Romanian orphanage conditions were so poor, especially in the standards of care, that the study may lack generalisability - the adoption process was not interfered with so those adopted earlier may have been more social, a confounding bariable, however selective placement like the Bucharest Early Intervention study raises ethical issues - it's too soon to know long/short term effects as the orphans were only followed into mid teens - the children who spent longer in the institution may lag or catch cup. equally, the early adopted may experience emotional problems in adulthood

Disinhibited Attachment

a form of insecure attachment where children don't discriminate between people they choose as attachment figures, leading to over friendliness to strangers & attention seeking behaviour

Romanian Orphange Study Procedure

a longitudinal study: the adopted were tested at ages 4, 6, 11 & 15 go assess physical, cognitive & social development info was also gathered via interviews with parents & teachers with progress compared to a control group of 52 British children adopted before 6 months

Romanian Orphange Study Findings

all orphans originally weighed less & were mentally underdeveloped compared to the control group: - if adopted before 6 months a full recovery was made by 4 years - if adopted after 6 months, children suffered disinhibited attachments & significant problems forming attachments with peers & caregivers

Physical Underdevelopment

an effect of institutionalisation causing physical smallness - studies show lack of emotional care rather than poor nourishment causes deprivation dwarfism

Intellectual Underfunctioning

emotional deprivation leading to poor cognitive development

Poor Parenting

ex-institutionalised women experienced extreme difficulties in parenting compared to women reared at home - these women also had children who spent time in care

Institutionalisation

the effect of institutional care on the development of childrenin terms of social, mental & physical underdevelolment - some of these effects can be irreversible