What happens to children who grow up in orphanages? Do they develop like other children, or does the neglect have lasting effects that continue into adulthood? These are some of the questions researchers of the Romanian Orphan Studies asked themselves. They studied the effects of institutionalisation and deprivation on the development of Romanian orphans who were then placed with families.
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Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenWhat happens to children who grow up in orphanages? Do they develop like other children, or does the neglect have lasting effects that continue into adulthood? These are some of the questions researchers of the Romanian Orphan Studies asked themselves. They studied the effects of institutionalisation and deprivation on the development of Romanian orphans who were then placed with families.
First, let's start with the basics: what is institutionalisation, and how is it related to deprivation? The following definitions will help us better understand the study.
Institutionalisation is the term used to describe residence in an institution such as an orphanage or children's home. Deprivation is when the child's bond with their mother or other caregiver is significantly disrupted because they are separated from their parents.
A child is taken from their primary caregiver and placed in state custody because the caregiver mistreated them. As a result, the child may be deprived of attachment to the primary caregiver during this time.
Depending on how long the child is removed from care, the child-caregiver bond can be seriously damaged or even destroyed.
For separation to turn into deprivation, the period must be long enough to damage the child and caregiver bond seriously. Severe deprivation may destroy the attachment, resulting in permanent or long-term social and emotional damage to the child. But what do institutionalisation and deprivation have to do with Romania?
A quick overview of the Rutter et al. (1998) study is it recruited 11 orphans who were adopted before the age of two. And the study found that the sooner children were adopted, the quicker the developmental progress. Those who were adopted later showed slower developmental progress, amongst other issues.
In 1989, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ciupercă was ousted, and the plight of children in impoverished Romanian orphanages was discovered. Due to the poor conditions in these Romanian orphanages, Romanian orphan studies have been conducted to examine the effects of early institutionalisation and maternal deprivation on child development. Orphans in Romanian orphanages had a poor quality of life, including:
We will look at Romanian orphan studies and learn about the impact of institutionalisation and maternal deprivation on development.
Fig. 1. Children in Romanian orphanages were found to be living in impoverished conditions and had several developmental issues.
Rutter (2011) aimed to investigate the effects of early institutional care and deprivation on later life development. In particular, he wanted to find out whether later good care would compensate for poor care and treatment in early life.
To do this, Rutter studied 165 Romanian infants who had been placed in orphanages. They were only a few weeks old and had extremely little contact with adults. Rutter studied these orphans at different stages of their lives through a longitudinal study and a natural experiment.
A natural experiment means that the researcher simply observes variables rather than manipulating them. This is important as it would be difficult to measure and verify hypotheses of such sensitive topics without raising ethical issues.
British families adopted the orphans after growing up in poor conditions in Romanian orphanages:
Rutter assessed the children's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development at ages 4, 6, 11, and 15.
Rutter included a control group of 52 English children adopted around the same time to compare the results.
The results of Rutter's study are as follows:
Disinhibited attachment means children have not formed close bonds with specific attachment figures.
For those with disinhibited attachment, the children showed indiscriminate and equal attention and comfort from familiar and unfamiliar people. The attachment style is characterised by a child who treats strangers with high friendliness and attention-seeking behaviours such as clinginess.
Rutter found significant problems in some children adopted after six months of age.
One-third of the children had problems that required the intervention of educational, psychological, and psychiatric professionals. They had characteristics reminiscent of autism, could not form proper attachments or function properly socially, and generally had a poor mental performance. And these difficulties were not seen in the control group.
At age 15, the adopted children generally showed signs of deprivation-specific problems such as emotional, behavioural, and relationship problems with peers.
The study concluded that institutionalisation and deprivation have long-term, severe effects on emotional, social, cognitive and even intellectual development.
The earlier adoption occurs, the less severe the long-term effects of institutionalisation and deprivation, as children have the opportunity to form attachments.
There is a crucial period in life when attachments develop, most likely before and up to six months of age. If attachments do not form, the consequences are likely to be severe.
This concept is known as Bowlby's critical period.
The researchers investigated the attachment styles of children who had spent most of their lives in an institution. The participants were compared to those who had grown up in normal homes and families.
The researchers studied the attachment styles of 95 children between 12 and 31 months. The children had spent most of their lives in institutions in Bucharest, Romania. Half of the children were placed in foster homes, and half stayed in institutions.
They compared the results with a control group of 50 children who had never experienced institutionalisation and had grown up in a 'normal' family environment. They conducted all assessments of attachment styles using Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation Procedure.
They found that:
Characteristic found | Percentage (%) |
Disorganised attachment style | 65.3% |
Secure attachment style | 18.9% |
Little attachment behaviours (difficult to classify) | 12.6% |
Secure attachment in the control group | 74% |
The research also found that participants who experienced institutionalisation were more likely to develop disinhibited attachments.
A disorganised attachment style is a classification found in Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation Procedure.
Disorganised attachment describes a child who shows inconsistent and disorganised behaviour toward their caregivers and has no strategy for coping with separation. The infant may sometimes show strong attachment and other times be indifferent or avoidant towards the caregiver.
From the research, it can be concluded that institutionalisation can cause confusion and lead to the individual developing disorganised attachment styles with others later in life.
The findings support the conclusions of Rutter's Romanian orphan study.
Let's now examine the strengths and criticisms of the Romanian ophan studies research.
Research on institutional care has significantly improved our understanding of the impact of institutionalisation.
Langton (2006) notes that the findings of this research have changed the way institutions operate, namely by improving the quality of care and providing a limited number of caregivers for a child so that they can form attachments.
Most of the children examined in these studies were placed in institutions from birth, which means they have not suffered from abuse, neglect or other trauma. This makes it easier to study the effects of institutionalisation in isolation because there are fewer confounding variables. There were no significant ethical issues in Romanian orphan studies.
There were exceptional circumstances in the Romanian orphanages, including poor care quality and low intellectual stimulation levels. It is thus difficult to generalise the results of the studies in Romanian orphanages to other situations of deprivation.
The studies only followed children's development up to 15, making it difficult to determine and compare the long-term to short-term effects of institutionalisation and deprivation.
The study doesn't consider there may still be adverse effects for those children (now adults) adopted before six months.
Various studies investigate Romanian orphans studies' effects of institutionalisation. Some examples are Rutter (2011) and Zeanah et al. (2005).
Rutter (2011) studied Romanian orphans through a longitudinal, natural study. He studied 165 Romanian orphans placed into British families. Rutter assessed the children’s physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development at ages 4, 6, 11, and 15.
The Romanian orphan study by Rutter (2011) had no significant ethical issues as it was a natural experiment with little research involvement.
The method used by Rutter (2011) for the Romanian orphans can be considered reliable as the findings of Zeanah et al. (2005) support the conclusions of Rutter's Romanian orphan study.
Rutter's (2011) aim for the Romanian orphan's study was to investigate the effects of early institutionalisation and deprivation on later development in life. In particular, he wanted to see if subsequent good quality care would make up for poor care and treatment in early life.
Define institutionalisation.
Institutionalisation is the term used to describe residence in an institution such as an orphanage or children's home.
What were the conditions in Romanian orphanages?
The conditions included little to no intellectual stimulation for the children, no 'assigned' caregiver for each child and overall poor living conditions.
What was the aim of Rutter's (2011) English and Romanian Adoptee study?
Rutter wanted to investigate the effects of early institutional care and deprivation on later life development. In particular, he wanted to find out whether later good care would compensate for poor care and treatment in early life.
What kind of study was Rutter's (2011) English and Romanian Adoptee study?
The study took the form of a longitudinal study and a natural experiment.
Describe the procedure of Rutter's (2011) English and Romanian Adoptee study.
Rutter studied 165 Romanian babies that had been placed in orphanages. After British families adopted them, Rutter assessed the children's physical, cognitive, social and emotional development at ages four, six, eleven, and fifteen. Rutter included a control group of 52 English children adopted around the same time to compare findings.
Summarise the findings of Rutter's (2011) English and Romanian Adoptee study.
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