These abandoned children face many problems as they grow up in these conditions. Many children are faced with deformities and mangled limbs due to lack of exercise and proper room to grow. Also, because of reused needles and contaminated blood supplies used in Romanian Hospitals many children contract HIV (Romanian Budget). Many face dealing with HIV and AIDS in a place where the resources are limited. These orphanages “held, among thousands of children, an estimated 3,000 infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS” (Smith). Currently there are an estimated 9,000 children infected with HIV in Romania (Romanian Budget). Funds and medical supplies are scarce so many children with HIV or AIDS are living without their vital medicines. The impoverished nation doesn’t have the capability to help all these dying children with such expensive needs.
Physical ailments aren’t the only thing these children face. There are many reports that the psychological damage is equally as crippling. With such little attention and social interaction the children face life-long developmental delays which, according to the Relief Fund for Romania, are much more difficult to address. Evidence of the delays are shown in their lower IQ scores (an average of 65 compared to 103), high percentages of mental illness (43 percent versus 14 percent) and frighteningly low heights and weights (Beckelmen). Their speech and language are delayed, and they lack the ability to form healthy relationships. Their demeanor shows their sorrow, “they smiled less, laughed less and were less likely to initiate or respond to social interaction” (Beckelmen). Medically there were signs also; Children’s Hospital Boston states “their brains reflected this paucity of development, showing significant reductions in electrical activity,: showing clinical proof that these conditions are not acceptable."
The attachment theory was begun by John Bowlby stating that a child needed its mother from birth to be there for a consistent, loving, attention giver in order for the child to fully grow into an emotionally, socially functioning adult. But Michael Rutter, a now famous psychologist, challenged that idea by saying the child needed many personal relationships and if the mother were not present as long as there was another close caregiver that was consistent, the child wouldn’t have the detrimental delays Bowlby spoke of. Rutter didn’t disagree with Bowlby entirely, though. He agreed that the child needed some sort of secure attachment, whether that be mother, father or foster parent.
Michael Rutter published Maternal Deprivation Reassessed in 1976 which holds evidence that children needed someone, not necessarily a mother, from a very early age to consistently care for them and support them emotionally and physically or they could be developmentally damaged. This theory is wholly supported by the lagging development of these Romanian orphans. Rutter said there are six characteristics needed for adequate “mothering” some of which are a loving relationship, attachment, and stimulation (Rutter). Meaning there is an intricate need for secure attachment, as the attachment theory also states, for the child to have normal social and emotional development.
These theories support the idea that these children need more than a few mintues of attention a day. The unfortunate circumstances which lead to mothers thinking that leaving their children to the state would be better than not being able to feed them due to lack of income or having no place to keep them because of the cramped quarters many women live in has resulted in a terrible situation for the children. As reported in the NY Times article “Romanian ‘Orphans’: Prisoners in Their Cribs”, many mother just don’t know what to do with the child and have no other options. Many hope to later bring their children home once they are easier to take care of and the family is less poor, but that is rarely the outcome.
The graph below is from a website that shows information from Dr. Dana Johnson’s research on post international adoption. It states the percentage of children out of 293 children who have some sort of emotional disorder. The numbers are appallingly high. (Post Adoption)
| Table 11: Number and percentage distribution of survey participants with emotional disorders, by type of disorder | ||
| Disorder | Number | Percentage of all participants |
| All participants | 293 | 100.0 |
| Emotional disorders | 143 | 48.8 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | 69 | 23.5 |
| Reactive Attachment Disorder | 54 | 18.4 |
| Oppositional Defiant Disorder | 40 | 13.7 |
| Attachment difficulties | 24 | 8.2 |
| Bipolar Disorder | 20 | 6.8 |
| Anxiety Disorder | 16 | 5.5 |
| Depression | 15 | 5.1 |
| Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder | 9 | 3.1 |
| Adjustment Disorder | 3 | 1.0 |
| Emotionally delayed | 3 | 1.0 |
| Anger management problems | 2 | 0.7 |
| Mood Disorder | 1 | 0.3 |
| Schizophrenia | 1 | 0.3 |
Graph courtesy of postadoptinfo.com
This graph shows the percentage of children from the same study that had developmental or neurological impairments.
| Table 6: Number and percentage distribution of survey participants with developmental delays, and those who also have neurological impairments | ||
| Condition | Number | Percentage of all participants |
| All participants | 293 | 100.0 |
| Developmental delays | 170 | 58.0 |
| Neurological impairments | 140 | 47.8 |
Graph courtesy of postadoptinfo.org
