INSTITUTIONALISATION

• INSTITUTION - A PLACE DEVOTED TO A PARTICULAR CAUSE WHICH PEOPLE ARE A PART OF
• IN INSTITUTIONS WHERE ORPHANS ARE RAISED, CAREGIVERS ARE ALWAYS CHANGING. IT IS HARD TO FORM AN ATTACHMENT LIKE SO
• INSTITUTIONALISED CARE CAN CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT, ESPECIALLY IN INADEQUATE CONDITIONS
• O'CONNOR INVESTIGATED THIS IDEA

• O'CONNOR WANTED TO CONDUCT AN EXPERIMENT TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONALISED CARE ON ROMANIAN ORPHANS AND THE IMPACT THIS WOULD HAVE ON COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL ABILITY
• THEY WERE COMPARED TO A UK BASED GROUP

• THEY STUDIED 165 ROMANIAN ORPHANS KEPT IN INSTITUTIONALISATED CARE. THEY WERE ADOPTED AT DIFFERENT TIMES

1) 0-6 MONTHS

2) 7-24 MONTHS

3) 24-42 MONTHS

• PART OF THE UK GROUP WERE ADOPTED BETWEEN 0-6 MONTHS
• THE ROMANIAN CHILDREN HAD SFFERED PRIVATION. THE UK GROUP DID NOT
• AT 4 YEARS, THEY INTEVIEWED PARENTS AND TEACHERS OF THE ORPHANS ABOUT BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS AND ATTACHMENT
• THEY ALSO CONDUCTED COGNITIVE TESTS

• THE LESS TIME THE ORPHANS HAD SPENT IN INSTITUTIONALISATION, THE HIGHER THEY SCORED ON COGNITIVE TESTS
• THE LONGER THE CHILD WAS IN THE INSTITUION, THE GREATER THE RISK OF FAILED ATTACHMENT
• TEACHERS WERE ASKED TO RATE THEIR SOCIAL ABILITIES. THEY RANKED THOSE WHO SPENT LESS TIME IN INSTITUTIONALISATION AS HAVING BETTER SOCIAL COMPETENCE

• FINDINGS WERE BASED ON SUBJECTIVE OBSERVATIONS. THEY ASKED MANY PEOPLE SO INTER-OBSERVER RELIABILITY COULD HAVE IMPACTED RESULTS
• THE RESEARCH DID NOT MEASURE PRIOR HISTORY. E.G. MEDICAL CONDITIONS, IF THE CHILD WAS ABUSED IN THE WOMB ETC. THIS COULD HAVE IMPACTED DEVELOPMENT
• THE SAMPLE SIZE WAS INVALID. BECAUSE CULTURES SHOW MANY DIFFERENCES, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE EFFECTVE TO COMPARE WITH ANOTER ROMANIAN GROUP
• SINCE THEY USED INTERVIEWS TO MEASURE ATTACHMENT, PARENTS COULD HAVE BEEN SUBJECT TO EVALUATION APPREHENSION