Romanian Orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation

Romanian orphan studies

• Research on maternal deprivation has turned to orphan studies as a means of studying the effects of deprivation

Rutter's ERA (English and Romanian Adoptee) study

• Procedure
  • Michael Rutter and colleagues have followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions
  • Physical, cog and emotional dev has been assessed at age 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 the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual dev and the majority were severely undernourished
  • At the age 11 the adopted children showed differential rates of recovery, relating to their age of adoption
  • The mean IQ of those children adopted before 6 months was 102, compared with 86 for those adopted between 6 months-2 years and 77 for those adopted after two years 
  • These differences remained at age 16
  • Those children adopted after they were six months showed signs of disinhibited attachment, symptoms include:
    • Attention seeking
    • Clinginess
    • Social behaviour directed towards all and any adults
  • In contrast, those adopted before six months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment 

The Bucharest Early intervention project

• Procedure
  • Zeanah assesed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who has spent most of their lives in institutional care
  • They were comapred to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in a institution
  • Their attachment style was measured using the Strange situation
  • In addition, carers were asked about unusual social behaviour (disinhibted attachment)
• Findings
  • 74% of the control group came out as securely attached
  • Only 19% of the institution group were securely attached
  • 65% classified with disorganised attachment
  • The…