Attachment: Romanian Orphans
Romanian Orphans
In 1989, Romania’s dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown; this then lead to the awful discovery of how poor conditions were in Romanian orphanages and how badly the children were treated due to the poverty in Romania. Children in the orphanages would see up to 50 people a day so therefore they couldn’t achieve a secure attachment with anyone which created a negative internal working model. With the child not receiving a continuous caregiver it meant that no template was formed so this later led to future relationships not being formed. Also, caregivers at the orphanages were encouraged to show no sign of emotion towards the children because they did not want any attachments to be formed, this meant that if a child was deprived for more than 5 months without any emotional care whatsoever then they would begin to develop anaclitic depression and also, those whom didn’t receive any emotional AND psychological care caused their physical health to be effected which led to dwarfism, which was caused by a decrease in a growth hormone.
Living conditions of the orphanages were horrific with it being severely unhygienic. Nicolae Ceausescu created a law that women and men had to have 5 children otherwise they would be taxed, Ceausescu did this because he believed that if there was more people then that meant Romania’s economy would boom.
In 1989 between 100-170 THOUSAND children were raised in communist orphanages as abortions and birth control were forbidden so therefore men and women couldn’t afford to have that many children, so they would put their children into orphanages. Also, women would try and abort their babies themselves so that then led to when the abortion was unsuccessful the infants were born disabled due to the attempt of abortion, due to the child being disabled it increased the chances of them being put into an orphanage. Once Nicolae Ceausescu had been overthrown it became public just how bad the orphanages conditions were and how badly the children had been treated mentally and physically; this news went worldwide which caused thousands of people to offer to adopt the orphans.
In 1998, 2007 and 2011 Rutter carried out a longitudinal investigation of how the Romanian orphans developed once being adopted into a loving and caring family. He followed 165 Romanian orphans whom were adopted in the UK to discover whether a child whom had suffered from extreme deprivation early on in life could develop like a normal child their age once being adopted within a safe family environment. He assessed the physical and emotional development of the children at the ages of 4, 6, 11 and 15; 52 of these UK adoptees were used as a control group. He discovered that within the children there was a mixture of deprivation and privation. On arrival to the UK the orphans showed signs of mental retardation with their IQ only being at 68 and they also displayed severe malnourishment. Rutter discovered that if the child was adopted before 6 months then their development was more rapid and their IQ went up to 102 overall their development was a lot better than those whom were adopted at a later age. Children who were adopted after 6 months showed autistic-like qualities, children would form attachments however, they would have poor social functioning and poor mental functioning – these children had a mean IQ of 86 and a third of them needed professional education and psychological or psychiatric support. Finally, Rutter discovered that the children who was adopted between the ages of 6 and 11 had autistic-like social difficulties, disinhibited attachment, ADD traits, cognitive impairment and emotional difficulties.
Overall, privation can be reversed if an attachment starts to form before 6 months and long term effects are more likely to permanent if an attachment doesn’t occur before 6 months. Those children whom were adopted before 6 months caught up with the control group by 4 years which shows that Intellectual development can recover if adoption happens before 6 months.
