Effects on institutionalisation

Question 1

Adoption

Answer 1

to take on legal responsibilities as a parent of a child that is not ones biological child

Question 2

Institutionalisation

Answer 2

a place like a hospital or orphanage where children live for long, continuous periods of time

Question 3

Deprivation

Answer 3

the child has an attachment figure during critical period, but loses this - could be long term or short term
* e.g. long term foster care, short term hospitalisation

Question 4

Privation

Answer 4

infant has never formed an attachment in the critical period
* e.g. death of a mother at child birth or orphaned

Question 5

Rutter (2011)

Answer 5

Aim- to see if the experience of privation could be overcome by sensitive care following adoption
* 165 Romanian orphans were adopted into British families
* children were placed into institutions before being adopted
* Rutter studied 3 groups of children:
1. adopted before the age of 6 months
2. adopted between 6 months and 2 years
3. adopted after the age of 2
* children were monitored at ages 4,6,11 and 15
* by the age of 6, children were making good recoveries
* however, those adopted later (older than 2) had a much higher level of disinhibited attachment (attention seeking, clingyness, poor social behaviour)
* those adopted befre 6 months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment
* monitoring was through parent and teacher reports and home visits
* supports the view that theres a sensitive period in the developments of attachments
* a failure to form attachments during critical period can have long -lasting effects

Question 6

Bucharest Early Intervention Project (2005)

Answer 6

• 95 children in institutional care were compared to 50 children who had never lived in institutions
• attachment types were measured using the strange situation study
• 74% of the control group came out as securely attached compared to 19% of the institutional group
  reasons for statistics:
• lack of consistency in the keyworker assigned to children in orphanages. this prevents children from developing secure relationships
• theres only one key worker for many children, so they might not be able to meet the needs of everyone

Question 7

Evaluation

Answer 7

- Ignores long term needs
+ Use of different methods
- Correlational research
+ Real world application
- Bad conditions

Question 8

- Ignores long term needs

Answer 8

• research into romainian orphans has not followed long terms effects
• majority have only followed up the adopted orphans into their mid-teens
• more recent studies have followed some individuals into their mid-20s
• this is a problem because the long term effects and recovery in the 20s are not monitored or understood
• it may be that children who spent longer in institutions may lack intellectual development

Question 9

+ Use of different methods

Answer 9

• research into institutionalisation uses a wide range of methods
• these include, semi-structured interviews, observations and teacher reports
• different methods provide rich, detailed pictures of adoptees functioning in different areas of their social world

Question 10

- Correlational research

Answer 10

• research into the effects of adoption and behavioural problems is correlational
• theres a negative correlation between adoption and intellectual and behavioural development
• however, there may be other underlying factors that could explain this link
• research does not imply cause and effect

Question 11

+ Real world application

Answer 11

• research into institutionalisation has useful real life application
• Studying Romainian orphans has enhanced our understanding of the effects of institutionalisation
• this has led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions
• e.g. childrens homes now have similar number of caregivers for each child e.g. keyworker
• having a keyworker means that children have a chance to develop normal attachments
• this shows that research has been immensely valuable

Question 12

Bad conditions

Answer 12

• a problem with Romainian orphans research is that the conditions were so bad that the results cannot be compared to better quality institutional care
• this means that the results of the study cannot be generalised to all institutions
• there’s a lack of internal validity