Attachment and indiscriminately friendly behavior were assessed in children who had spent at least 8 months in a Romanian orphanage (RO) and two comparison groups of children: a Canadian-born, nonadopted, never institutionalized comparison group (CB) and an early adopted comparison group adopted from Romania before the age of 4 months (EA). Attachment was assessed using 2 measures: an attachment security questionnaire based on parent report, and a Separation Reunion procedure that was coded using the Preschool Assessment of Attachment. Indiscriminately friendly behavior was examined using parents' responses to 5 questions about their children's behavior with new adults. Although RO children did not score differently from either CB or EA children on the attachment security measure based on parent report, they did display significantly more insecure attachment patterns than did children in the other 2 groups. In addition, RO children displayed significantly more indiscriminately friendly behavior than both CB and EA children, who did not differ in terms of indiscriminate friendliness. RO children's insecure attachment patterns were not associated with any aspect of their institutional environment, but were related to particular child and family characteristics. Specifically, insecure RO children had more behavior problems, scored lower on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, and had parents who reported significantly more parenting stress than RO children classified as secure.

Six and a half years after adoption, 6- to 12-year-old children reared in Romanian orphanages for more than 8 months in their first years of life (RO, n = 18) had higher cortisol levels over the daytime hours than did early adopted (EA, ≤ 4 months of age, n = 15) and Canadian born (CB, n = 27) children. The effect was marked, with 22% of the RO children exhibiting cortisol levels averaged over the day that exceeded the mean plus 2 SD of the EA and CB levels. Furthermore, the longer beyond 8 months that the RO children remained institutionalized the higher their cortisol levels. Cortisol levels for EA children did not differ in any respect from those of CB comparison children. This latter finding reduces but does not eliminate concerns that the results could be due to prenatal effects or birth family characteristics associated with orphanage placement. Neither age at cortisol sampling nor low IQ measured earlier appeared to explain the findings. Because the conditions in Romanian orphanages at the time these children were adopted were characterized by multiple risk factors, including gross privation of basic needs and exposure to infectious agents, the factor(s) that produced the increase in cortisol production cannot be determined. Nor could we determine whether these results reflected effects on the limbic–hypothalamic–pituitary– adrenal axis directly or were mediated by differences in parent–child interactions or family stress occasion by behavioral problems associated with prolonged orphanage care in this sample.

Attachment security was assessed in children who had spent at least 8 months in a Romanian orphanage (RO) and two comparison groups of children: a Canadian-born, nonadopted comparison group (CB) and a comparison group adopted from Romania before the age of 4 months (RC). We also assessed differences in displays of indiscriminately friendly behavior between the two adopted groups of children. Attachment security was assessed using parent report on a questionnaire comprised of the 23 items with the highest and lowest loadings on the Waters and Deane (1985) attachment Q-sort. Indiscriminately friendly behavior was assessed using parents' responses to five questions about their children's behavior with new adults. Children's attachment security scores were also compared to parents' scores on the parent attachment subscale of the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1990). RO children scored significantly lower on security of attachment than did either the RC or CB children. RC and CB children did not differ on attachment security. Based on their parents' reports, RO children displayed significantly more indiscriminately friendly behaviors than did RC children, but such behaviors were not correlated with security of attachment. Children's attachment security scores were related to their parents attachment scores only in the RO group. It is suggested that RO children's experience of extreme neglect contributed to their low attachment-security scores, and that indiscriminate friendliness may be an important behavior to consider in the study of attachment in institutionalized children.

Behaviour problems in Romanian orphans adopted to Canada were examined through parents’ interview reports of specific problems, and children’s scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (Achenbach, Edelbrock, & Howell, 1987) completed by their parents. Three groups of children were studied. Romanian orphanage (RO) children had spent at least 8 months in a Romanian orphanage. Parents’ reports of RO children’s problems were compared to parent reports from 2 comparison groups: (1) Canadian-born children (CB) who were not adopted and never institutionalised; and (2) children who would have gone to a Romanian orphanage had they not been adopted before 4 months of age (Romanian Comparison: RC). RO children scored higher than CB and RC children for Total problems and Internalizing problems on the CBCL. No significant differences were found for any group comparison on Externalizing problems. CBCL scores were positively correlated with RO children’s total time in orphanage. According to parent interview, RO children had more eating problems, medical problems, and stereotyped behaviour problems than both CB and RC children. These problems were distinctive ones, rarely if ever being reported for CB or RC children. It is suggested that these distinctive RO problems arise out of a normal developmental base, and reflect either continuations of orphanage behaviours, reactions to stimuli different from those experienced in orphanage, or lack of opportunity for development or learning within the orphanage.

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