Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalsiation

Rutter`s English and Romanian Adoptee study 2011:

Procedure: followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions. physical, cogntive 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 served as a control group.

Findings: when they first arrived in the UK half of the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely undernourished. at the age of 11 they showed differential rates of recovery that were related to their age of adoption. The mean IQ of children adopted before the age of 6 months was 102, compared with 86b for those adopted between 6 months and two years and 77 for those adopted after 2 years. these differences remained at age 16. in terms of attachment, there was a difference in outcome related to whether adoption took place before or after six months. those adopted after six months showed signs of a particular attachment style called disinhibited attachment  - symptoms include attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar. all children adopted before the age of six months rarely showed these symptoms.

The Bucharest Early Intervention project (2005):

Procedure: attachment assessed in 95 children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of thier lives in institutional care (90% on average). they were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution and attachment type measure usin the Strange Situation. carers were also asked about behaviour that may be associated with disinhibited attachment.

Findings…