Effects of Institutionalisation

Effects of Institutionalisation

1. Physical Underdevelopment - Children in care are usually physically small . Research has shown that lack of emotional care as opposed to nourishment is the cause of what's called ' deprivation dwarfism'

2. Intellectual Underfunctioning - Coginitive development is also affected by emotional deprivation

3. Disinhibited Attachment - A form of attachment where children do not discriminate between people they choose as attachment figures. Such children will treat near-strangers with inappropriate friendliness (overfriendliness) and may be attention seeking.

4. Poor Parenting - Harlow showed that monkeys raised with a surrogate mother went on to become poor parents. This is also supported by Quinton et al. (1984) who compared a group of 50 women who has been reared in institutions with a control group of 50 women reared at home. When the women were in their 20's it was found tat the ex-institutional women were experiencing extreme difficulties acting as parents.