Problems Reported by Parents of Romanian Orphans Adopted to British Columbia

Abstract

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.

Emotion understanding in postinstitutionalized Eastern European children

“…Later studies indicated that PI children might also experience high levels of sadness, depression, and anxiety. Fisher et al (1997) found that 31-month-old children adopted from Romanian orphanages after 8 months of age scored significantly higher on the Child Behavior Checklist internalizing scale than early adopted (i.e., before age 4 months) and nonadopted children. In this same study, parent interviews suggested that PI children experienced social difficulties, including tendencies to withdraw or avoid peers and siblings.…”

“…We also tested children to determine whether group differences in this more complex situation-expression matching task could be reflected in problems in a less complex facial expression labeling task. Because prior research has found length of institutionalization to be a strong predictor of subsequent cognitive and behavioral developmental outcomes Fisher et al, 1997;O'Connor et al, 1999;Rutter & the ERA Study Team, 1998), we examined whether the length of time children spent in orphanage settings would be negatively related to these emotion processing abilities. Exploratory analyses were also carried out to investigate whether or not these emotion understanding abilities improve as the length of time spent in the adoptive home increases.…”

“…Rather than improving with age, the psychosocial problems experienced by PI children tend to persist or even increase with age (Chisholm, 1998;Hodges & Tizard, 1989b;Rutter et al, 1998). In fact, adoptive parents tend to note emotional/ interpersonal functioning as the developmental domain in which they observe the least improvement following adoption (compared to other domains including eating, medical, sleeping, physical growth, and stereotyped behavior problems; Fisher et al, 1997). In addition, there is a suggestion that variation in environment, such as relative quality of the institutionalized care, is a predictor of general cognitive catchup above and beyond the effects of duration of institutionalization and degree of malnutrition (Castle, Groothues, Bredenkamp, Beckett, O'Connor, Rutter, & ERA Study Team, 1999).…”

“…Thus, the study of these children addresses both basic science issues about the role of early experience on brain development and also applied issues about the kinds of interventions that are likely to support and foster optimal development for these children. Indeed, early studies revealed that postinstitutionalized (PI) children showed marked improvements when removed from orphanage settings and placed in family environments; nonetheless, persistent developmental differences in these children could be detected long after adoption, including deficits in emotional and social development (Fisher, Ames, Chisholm, & Savoie, 1997;Hodges & Tizard, 1989a,1989bO'Connor, Rutter, Beckett, Keaveney, Kreppner, & ERA Study Team, 2000;Rutter & ERA Study Team, 1998). Yet, little is known about the processes through which early experiences of neglect lead to these developmental problems.…”

Speech and language development in six infants adopted from China

“…The majority of research to date has documented language development in children adopted from Russia and Eastern Europe whose second first language is English (e.g., Fisher et al, 1997;Glennen & Masters, 2002). However, these findings may not apply to Chinese children, whose birth language differs greatly from European languages and who may have better health and orphanage conditions (Miller & Hendrie, 2000;Cecere, 2001).…”