Developmental Differences of children raised in orphanages, adoptive Families and biological families in Lusaka, Zambia
type: CreativeWork
description: Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the developmental differences that arise from different patterns of child care. The influence of different patterns of care was investigated on the caregiving environment, security of attachment, maternal sensitivity, cognitive development and physical growth.Sample: The sample consisted of three groups of children from different types of caring environment with 8 children per group: a family comprising the child's biological parents, an adoptive family and an orphanage. The children were matched for age and gender. The age of the participants ranged from 3 years, 7 months to 5 years, 4 months. The mean age for all participants was 4 years, 9 months. All the families and the orphanage were from the medium density residential areas. Method: The child's home was assessed using the HOME and the HEPA scales. The strange situation procedure was used for determining security of attachment. For Sensitivity, the Emotional Availability Scale was used by having the caregiver- child dyad play and interact without any toys. For cognitive development, two subtests from the SON-R were used; the categories for reasoning and pattens for performance. For physical growth, the weight, height and head circumference indices of physical development were measured.Results: There was an organized distribution of secure and insecure attachment styles in the sample. Only the orphanage group showed disorganized attachment. The orphanage caregivers showed lower levels of sensitivity compared to their counterparts. Home environment scale showed significant differences between the orphanage group and both the family reared groups but no significant differences between the biological and adoptive family reared groups. On the cognitive tests, differences were found between the orphanage and the family reared children. The orphanage children lagged behind the family reared children in both subtests. For physical growth, the orphanage children lagg…
abstract: Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the developmental differences that arise from different patterns of child care. The influence of different patterns of care was investigated on the caregiving environment, security of attachment, maternal sensitivity, cognitive development and physical growth.Sample: The sample consisted of three groups of children from different types of caring environment with 8 children per group: a family comprising the child's biological parents, an adoptive family and an orphanage. The children were matched for age and gender. The age of the participants ranged from 3 years, 7 months to 5 years, 4 months. The mean age for all participants was 4 years, 9 months. All the families and the orphanage were from the medium density residential areas. Method: The child's home was assessed using the HOME and the HEPA scales. The strange situation procedure was used for determining security of attachment. For Sensitivity, the Emotional Availability Scale was used by having the caregiver- child dyad play and interact without any toys. For cognitive development, two subtests from the SON-R were used; the categories for reasoning and pattens for performance. For physical growth, the weight, height and head circumference indices of physical development were measured.Results: There was an organized distribution of secure and insecure attachment styles in the sample. Only the orphanage group showed disorganized attachment. The orphanage caregivers showed lower levels of sensitivity compared to their counterparts. Home environment scale showed significant differences between the orphanage group and both the family reared groups but no significant differences between the biological and adoptive family reared groups. On the cognitive tests, differences were found between the orphanage and the family reared children. The orphanage children lagged behind the family reared children in both subtests. For physical growth, the orphanage children lagg…
author: Chansa, Tamara
language: en
keywords: Orphanages-Lusaka, Rearing of Children, Raising of Children, Child Psychology
date published: 2012-08-16
date modified: 2026-07-27T22:06:49Z
provider: University of Zimbabwe
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Zimbabwe