The Effects Of Early Institutional Care On Adolescent Personality

Abstract

This research resulted from a general in terest in the phenomenon of infant depriva tion and a particular interest in the infant institution as a case in point. In a previous study (4), a comparison was made of 40 children in foster homes, who had each spent about the first two or three years of their lives in an infant institution (institutional children) and 40 children whose total experi ence had been in foster homes (foster home children). It was clearly demonstrated that the children placed in foster homes after babyhood rearing in an institution evidenced greater frequency of problem behavior than did the children with continuous foster home experience. Further, the institution children showed more problems involving the overt expression of anxiety (restlessness, hyper activity, inability to concentrate), the overt expression of aggression (temper display, im pudence, destructiveness, failure to regard privacy rights, cruelty without cause, etc.) and affective impoverishment. It was inferred that the institution children were less secure, more isolated from other people and less capable of entering into meaningful human relationships.