Romanian Orphan Studies: Institutionalisation

Context

- In the 1990s, former President Ceaucescu required Romanian women to have five children

- Many Romanian parents could not afford to keep their children so had to send them to huge orphanages with very poor conditions 

Rutter et al. (2011)

- Longitudinal research on 165 Romanian orphans who'd been adopted by UK families

- Part of the English and Romanian adoptee study (ERA)

- ERA aimed to investigate extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions

- Physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed at ages 4, 6, 11, 15, and 22-25

- Group of 52 children from UK adopted around same time used as control group

Findings

- 1/2 adoptees upon arrival in UK showed signs of delayed intellectual development and majority were severely malnourished

- At 11, adoptees showed differential rates of recovery related to age of adoption 

- Mean IQ for those adopted before 6 months old was 102, 86 for those adopted between 6 months and two years, and 77 for those adopted after two years

- These differences remained at age 16 (Beckett et al. 2010).

- ADHD more common in 15 and 22-25 y/o samples (Kennedy et al. 2016)

- Disinhibited attachment much more common in children adopted after 6 months

Zeanah et al. (2005)

- Bucharest Early Intervention (BEI) project

- Assessed 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months who had spent on average 90% lives in institutional care

- Compared to control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution

- Attachment type measured using Strange Situation

- Carers asked about behaviour associated with disinhibited attachment

- 74% control group securely attached

- 19% institution group securely attached

- 44% of institutionalised children fit description of disinhibited attachment

- <20% control fit description of disinhibited attachment

Emotional Impacts of Institutionalisation

- Disinhibited attachment common in children who have…