The Effects of Institutionalisation: The English & Romanian Adoptees Project (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

The effects of institutionalisation

• The effects of deprivation can be researched by studying the experience of orphans

  • This is often referred to as the effects of institutionalisation in (where the child has been raised in an orphanage or children's home)

• Romania had many orphanages due to the particularly harsh laws laid down by the communist dictator Ceaușescu

  • During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, families were under the obligation to have large families (contraception and abortion were banned)

  • Children who could not be cared for by their families were put into orphanages

• After the regime's end in 1989, the orphanages were unveiled to the wider world and gave a unique, yet tragic, opportunity for psychologists to study the effects of institutionalisation

Rutter et al.'s English & Romanian Adoptees (ERA) project

• Rutter et al. (2010) studied a group of Romanian orphans from the 1990s onwards as part of the English and Romanian Adoptee (ERA) project

• Procedure

  • The study involves 165 Romanian children who spent their childhood years in Romanian orphanages (i.e., they were institutionalised)

    • 111 of these orphans were adopted by British parents before the age of two

    • 54 of the orphans were adopted by the age of four

  • Each adoptee was assessed at regular intervals to determine their physical, social and cognitive development

  • Interviews were conducted with the adoptees' teachers and adoptive parents

  • The progress of the adopted children was compared with a control group of 52 British adopted children, adopted before the age of six months

• Findings and conclusions

  • Initially, the adoptees under-performed compared to the British control group on all measures of physical, social and cognitive development

  • By the age of four, the Romanian children who had been adopted before the age of six months were at the same level as the British children

  • Developmental delays persisted in a minority of individuals who were institutionalised after the age of six months and had not been adopted until after this age

    • These developmental delays were manifest in the forming of attachments and relationships - disinhibited attachment

  • At age 11, the intellectual progress made by the adopted children was key as it was related to their age of adoption

    • Children adopted before the age of six months had a mean IQ of 102

    • Children adopted between the ages of six months and two years had a mean IQ Of 86

    • Those adopted after the age of two years had a mean IQ of 77

    • These differences remained at age 16 (Becket et al., 2010)

  • Rutter's research shows that long-term consequences of institutionalisation may be less severe than was once thought

  • Institutionalisation is reversible if children have the opportunity to form attachments - the earlier the better

Zeanah et al's Bucharest Early Intervention (BEI) project

• Zeanah et al. (2005) conducted research into the effects of institutionalisation in the Bucharest Early Intervention (BEI) project

• Procedure

  • 95 Romanian orphans aged 12-31 months comprised the sample

  • A control group comprised 50 children who had never lived in an institution

  • The Strange Situation was used to measure attachment

  • Measures of disinhibited attachment were also assessed using feedback from caregivers

• Findings

  • Zeanah et al. found that 74% of the control group were classified as securely attached

  • Only 19% of the Romanian children were securely attached

  • Disorganised attachment (Type D) was seen in 44% of the institutionalised children, whilst this behaviour was seen in less than 20% of the control group

Evaluation of the effects of institutionalisation

Strengths

• There is good real-world application of the English and Romanian Adoptee (ERA) project described above

  • There is a greater understanding now of how institutionalisation can affect the physical, social, emotional and cognitive development of children

  • This has led to improvements in the conditions of looked-after children in orphanages and foster care

  • Institutional care is now avoided, with a higher effort being placed on adoption or foster care

  • Adoptions are aimed to happen within the first week of a baby's life where possible to ensure attachments can be made with adoptive parents

• The English and Romanian Adoptee (ERA) project has minimal confounding variables

  • Children from the Romanian orphans had commonalities

    • Most had been given up by loving families (who were too poor to care for their large number of children) rather than being institutionalised because of war, abuse, parental death or other traumatic events

    • This means that fewer confounding variables would affect the findings, and thus the studies have higher internal validity

Limitations

• The English and Romanian Adoptee (ERA) project does, however, have some confounding variables

  • The Romanian children who formed part of the studies did not just suffer from emotional neglect

    • There was a lack of physical care and intellectual stimulation

  • This means that the effects of institutionalisation may be due to poor care, rather than just the fact that they were institutionalised at all

  • Therefore, the results cannot be generalised to all children who have been institutionalised

• The data was not followed into adulthood

  • There is a lack of data from the adoptees in their adult lives

  • This raises questions about the long-term impacts of institutionalisation, such as:

    • mental health

    • forming adult relationships, including marriage and parenthood

    • maintaining employment and careers

  • This means that the children who had not progressed in line with the control groups may have done so if the data had been gathered into adulthood