pillar 2 - Research


 
 
 

Children belong in safe and loving families. We substantiate our argument by using the four cornerstones/pillars of a house as a metaphor:

 
  1. Culture
  2. Research
  3. Law (& Guidelines)
  4. Theology

On this page we describe pillar number 2, Research, more in depth.


80% HAS A LIVING PARENT

It is a myth that the children who live in ‘orphanages’ have no parents. Over 80% of these children have at least one living parent or other family members who could take care of the child given the right support.

This picture is from the factsheet ‘Children in Institutions, The Global Picture’ by LUMOS. It presents statistics on the global picture of children in institutions, with data ascertained from countries across the globe. The factsheet explores the problem of the ‘orphan myth’. Click here to download the document.

Next to that, more than 80 years of (scientific) research shows the negative effects of growing up in an institution to a child's cognitive, emotional, and social development. This is acknowledged on December 18, 2019 by all member states of the UN when they adopted the 2019 UN RESOLUTION - Promotion and protection of the rights of children’. In article 26 they express their deep concern about the potential harm that growing up in an institution and institutional care can cause to the growth and development of children.

 

This is what institutional care lookes like

 
Many baby beds in an orphanage in Tanzania.png
Children sleeping on the floor in an orphanage in Tanzania
Children standing in their beds in the orphanage in Tanzania

Impact of Institutionalisation

Most people are not aware of how significant the impact of institutionalisation is on children. But more than 80 years of research shows that children in institutions often have or suffer from:

  • Speech delays;
  • Growth delays;
  • Attachment disorders;
  • Being stigmatized;
  • Struggle with an inability to reintegrate into society;
  • Problems with forming healthy relationships as adults;
  • They grow up without any model of family;
  • Or what good parenting looks like;
  • Struggle to parent their own children;
  • 10 x more likely to fall in to sexwork that their peers;
  • 40 x more likely to have a criminal record;
  • 500 x more likely to take their own lives;
  • Developing mental illnesses


 

Attachment Problems

One of the biggest impact are attachment problems. They often occur from the inability to form secure emotional bonds with a consistent caregiver. This issue is particularly prevalent in environments like orphanages, where there is a constant rotation of caregivers. The lack of a stable, consistent caregiver prevents children from developing the trust and security needed for healthy emotional growth.

Also the rotation of volunteers and carers throughout these children’s lives makes it difficult for them to recognize and form healthy relationships in the future and normalizes interactions with strangers who do not always have their best intentions in mind.

As a result, these children may struggle with trusting others, show resistance to comfort, and exhibit extreme behaviors like withdrawal or aggression. The absence of a consistent caregiver disrupts the formation of a secure attachment, leading to challenges in emotional regulation, social relationships, and overall mental health, with potential long-term psychological difficulties if not addressed in a stable, nurturing environment.

 

Understanding the Trauma of Institutions

This book by Florence Koenderink is a must read for all involved with children living in institutions. But even if you are not, but still want to learn more about and to understand the trauma of children in institutions, than this book is for you.

Institutionalisation affects a child's brain development, physical development, cognitive development, emotional development and stress response. This book gives you an understanding how care in an institution is different from care in a family and the effects this has on a child.

Areas discussed are a general understanding of the development of the brain and the stress response system in a child, the roles of attachment, physical contact, stimulation, attention, and living in the community in child development, and the effects of institutionalisation such as attachment disorders, challenging behaviour, self-harm, and health problems. And how to help the child build trust and relationships, how to help reduce stress and establish felt safety, and deal with challenging behaviour - including positive disciplining in a way that does not cause further harm.

This training manual for caseworkers is a twin to the book 'Understanding the Trauma of Institutionalised Children, to support the child you adopt'. It gives the same basic information, but structured as a training manual for those involved in moving children from institutions to families (whether their birth family, extended family, a foster family, adoptive family, guardian or kafeel).

 

Research 1944

This study, done by Anna Freud and Dorothy T. Burlingham, is a study of children at the Hampstead Nursery, a residential nursery for young children who have lost their homes and often their parents due to war. Already then they had established the negative effects of institutional care on the development of children.

The study compares the development of these children with those who live in a normal family setting. Although infants in the residential nursery may develop relatively well up to five months old because their physical needs are better met than in ordinary working-class homes, they usually face challenges after that age. The lack of close and continuous emotional relationships with a mother and the absence of other normal family interactions slow down their emotional, intellectual, speech, and habit development.

These children tend to be insecure, more dependent on adults, more aggressive towards each other, and engage more in fantasy and self-comforting behaviors. Additionally, the development of their character and sense of right and wrong may be hindered by the lack of normal family figures who provide love and represent society’s rules and expectations.

"Superficial observation of children of this kind leaves a conflicting picture. They resemble, so far as outward appearances are concerned, children of middle-class families: they are well developed physically, properly nourished, de- cently dressed, have acquired clean habits and decent table manners, and can adapt themselves to rules and regula- tions. So far as character development is concerned, they often prove to everybody's despair and despite many ef- forts-not far above the standard of destitute or neglected children. This shows up especially after they have left the institutions."

"It is because of these failures of development that in recent years thoughtful educators have more and more turned against the whole idea of residential nurseries as such, and have devised methods of boarding out orphaned or destitute children with foster families. But since all efforts of this kind will probably not succeed in altogether doing away with the need for residential homes for infants, it remains a question of interest how far failures of the kind described are inherent in the nature of such institutions as distinct from family life, and how far they could be obviated if the former were ready and able to change their methods."


Orphanage Industrial Complex

Residential care facilities for children are sometimes seen as a business model, a way of generating revenue from tourism and international adoption. They also sometimes receive structural financial support (mainly from the West). Part of this income is obtained legally. However, illegal activities also occur, for instance children being sold or recruited for placement in such facilities.

Volunteer travel to these facilities is part of a complex system that maintains ‘orphanages’ unnecessarily. It is sometimes referred to in the literature as the ‘orphan industrial complex’. The income and free labour that come from volunteer travel are only one factor in this system. Structural financial support from the West (for instance in the form of equity funds, private donations and sponsorship) does much more to perpetuate such institutions.

 

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