Aim

To examine the effects of emotional privation on infants.

Method

They carried out a natural experiment studying 65 children bought up in a children's home until the age of 4. During this time the children were unable to form an attachment to any of the adults as staff were discouraged from doing so to prevent upsetting the children when they left the job.

They had, on average, 50 different care givers before the age of 4. At the age of 4, 25 of the children were returned to their biological parents / 33 were adopted and 7 children continued in care, being fostered for some periods of time and then returned.

Tizard and Hodges visited the children with their families/careers at the age of 8, and also interviewed them with a career present at the age of 16. They also contacted their schools and interviewed their teachers/peers aged 16.

Results

At the age of 2, all the children showed unusual attachment behaviours. Rather than showing fear of strangers they would demand he attention of anybody who entered the room. They would also cry when they left, despite having no attachment to them.

They found that out of the adopted children: 20/21 had formed close attachments at 8 years old with only 1/21 appearing rejecting or hostile towards their care givers.

On the other hand they found that only 6/13 from the restored group had developed attachments (aged 8) and 7/13 appeared rejecting/hostile.

At 16 years of age: 17/21 in the adopted group had formed close attachments where as 4/21 were rejecting and hostile.

In the restored group: 5/9 had formed close relations compared to 4/9 who were rejecting/hostile.

They found that the restored group had worse relationships with their siblings than those who were adopted. They also found that all of the childen had difficulties with peer relationships and were less likely to belong to a crowd. They were rated by their teachers as being more likely to seek adult attention.