Institutionalisation

Question 1

What is Institutional Care?

Answer 1

• When a child’s living arrangements are outside of the family.
• Some are raised in children’s homes, hostels, hospitals etc

Question 2

What can Institutional Care lead to?

Answer 2

• Children adopt the rules and norms of the institution
• This could impair functioning and lead to a loss of personal identity (deindividuation)

Question 3

Who researched into the effects of institutionalisation?

Answer 3

Study of Romanian Orphans - Rutter et al (2010)

Question 4

What was the Procedure?

Answer 4

• Study of 165 Romanian Orphans who spent early years of their lives in Romanian Orphanages, before being adopted so they suffered effects of institutionalised
• Adoptees tested at ages, 4, 6, 11 and 15 to assess physical, cognitive and social development
• Progress was compared to a control group of 52 British children adopted in the UK before 6 months

Question 5

What were the findings?

Answer 5

• At time of adoption the Romanian Orphans lagged behind the British counterparts in physical, cognitive and social development
• By the age of 4 those Romanians adopted before 6 months had caught up with their British counterparts
• Those adopted after 6 months still had significant deficits at age 4

Question 6

What did the study conclude?

Answer 6

• Suggests long term consequences of institutionalisation may be less severe if adopted before 6 months and received sensitive parenting
• If children are not adopted before 6 months the consequences of institutionalisation are likely to be severe

Question 7

What are the effects of Institutionalisation?

Answer 7

Delayed Intellectual Development
Disinhibited Attachment
Emotional Development (cannot manage anger)
Lack of internal working model
Quasi - Autism
Delayed physical development

Question 8

What are some strengths into the effects of Institutionalisation?

Answer 8

• Enhanced Understanding
  
  • We now know more about negative consequences of institutionalisation
  • Led to the establishment of key workers who can provide crucial emotional care
• Changes in Adoption
  
  • Mothers encouraged to nurse their children for as long as possible before giving up for adoption
  • Today most babies are adopted before 6 months, usually in first week of life

Question 9

What are some weaknesses into the effects of Institutionalisation?

Answer 9

Generalising Results
Canadian orphans from Romania
Participant Variables

Question 10

Generalising Results

Answer 10

• Problems when generalising results of Romanian Orphans as conditions in their orphanages were extremely poor
• They faced much more than emotional deprivation
• Physical conditions were appalling with no cognitive stimulation
• Likely that the long-term effects of institutional care only occurs when there are multiple risk factors

Question 11

Canadian Orphans from Romania

Answer 11

• Carried out longitudinal study of 36 Romanian Orphans adopted to families in Canada
• Adopted orphans were physically smaller than a matched control group at age 4, but by age 10 this disappeared
• Same was true for psychological health
• Effects of Institutionalisation can be reduced through sensitive parenting

Question 12

Participant Variables

Answer 12

• Adoption and control groups were not randomly allocated to conditions in the study
• Participant Variables between the children could influence the findings in unexpected ways
• Adopted children may have been adopted because of personal characteristics such as resilience and being sensible
• This might explain why they were less affected by institutionalisation which lowers the validity of the research