Outline and evaluate research into the effects of institutionalisation.

Quinton carried out a study on women who were raised in institutions as children and found that they had difficulties when they became parents. They were less sensitive and caring towards their children. This study shows how institutionalisation can still have an effect on people when they are adults.

Rutter studied 111 Romanian orphans who had spent their early lives in extreme privation in Romania before being adopted by British families. He found that those who were adopted before the age of 6 months showed normal levels of development. Those who were adopted after the 6 months showed disinhibited attachments and problems with peers. The later the children were adopted, the longer it took for them to recover. He concluded that children would still be able to recover if they have the opportunity to form attachments in the first 6 months.

This was a longitudinal study and so the children’s behaviors could be compared over a long period of time. A weakness of this study is that the parents may have picked the happier children to adopt therefore the results cannot necessarily be generalized to all children and institutions. Also, some of the children may have left the study over time which would lead to biased results.