Effects of institutionalisation- A01

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  • Created by: MollyL20
  • Created on: 12-12-20 11:09
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  • Effects of institutionalisation- A01
    • Research on maternal deprivation has turned to orphan studies as a means of studying the effects of deprivation. A tragic opportunity arose in the 1990s in Romania
    • Former Nicolai Ceausescu required Romanian women to have 5 children. Most families couldn't afford to keep their children and they ended up in huge orphanages in very poor conditions. After the 1989 revolution, many children were adopted
    • Rutter's ERA study
      • Procedure
        • Rutter et al (2011) have followed a group of Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
        • Physical cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15 years. A group of 52 British children adopted around the same time have served as a control group
      • Findings
        • When they first arrived in the UK, half of the adoptees shows signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were malnourished
        • At age 11 the adopted children showed different rates of recovery related to he ages they were adopted. The mean IQ of the children adopted before the age of 6 months was 102 compared with the 86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years and 2 years+ their IQ being 77.These differences remained at the age 16 (Becket et al 2010).
        • In terms of attachment, there appeared to be a difference in outcome related to whether adoption took place before or after 6 months. Symptoms include attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour to both unfamiliar and familiar adults
    • Bucharest Early Antiprevention project
      • Procedure
        • Zeanan et al (2005) assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care (90% on average). They were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution
        • The attachment type was measured using the Strange situation. In addition carers were asked about unusual social behaviours.
      • Findings
        • They found that 74% of the control group came out as securely attached. However, only 19% of the other group were attached, with 65% being classified as disorganised attachment
        • The description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to less than 20% of the controls
    • Effects of institutionalisation
      • Disinhibited attachment
        • Equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know well or who are strangers
        • Rutter (2006) has explained that it is an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation
        • In poor quality institutions,  child might have 50 carers none of whom which they see enough to be bale to form an attachment
      • Mental retardation
        • In Rutter's study most children showed signs of retardation when they arrived in Britain
        • Adopted before 6 months, caught up with the control group by age 4
        • Intellectual development can be recovered provided adoption takes place before 6 months

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