Characteristics of environments, caregivers, and children in three Central American orphanages.

Abstract

This study provides descriptive empirical information on the environments, organizational structure, caregivers, caregiver-child interactions, and children's general behavioral development and problem behaviors from three institutions for young children in Central America. While the institutions were clean, they were physically sparse and had Infant-Toddler Environmental Rating Scale (ITERS; T. Harms, D. Cryer, & R. Clifford, 2006) and Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale (ECERS; T. Harms, R. Clifford, & D. Cryer, 2005) scores that averaged 1.62 (7 = highest). Caregivers provided routine caregiving with limited emotion, responsiveness, support, empathy, or guidance. Caregivers tended to work long hours and then were off 2 to 3 days, and children periodically graduated to new wards, so there was little stability of caregivers in children's lives. Children's average Battelle Developmental Inventory Total Developmental Quotient = 58 to 63, which would be considered mildly-moderately retarded in noninstitutional U.S. populations; no child scored >90, 80% scored <70, and nearly half scored <60. Children displayed high frequencies of indiscriminate friendliness, noncompliance, and provocative and aggressive/violent behaviors. These data and that of a few other studies represent the only comprehensive, empirical description of institutions for young children, which constitutes the independent variable (institutionalization) for a burgeoning literature on postinstitutional adopted children. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that a lack of warm, sensitive, contingently responsive interactions with relatively few consistently available caregivers may be a major contributor to delayed contemporary development and persistent deficits and problems observed in some postinstitutional adopted children and adolescents.