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The Adult Adjustment of Persons Institutionalized as Children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Leonard L. Heston ,
D. Duane Denney  and
Ira B. Pauly
Leonard L. Heston
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Genetics Research Unit, Maudsley Hospital, London, S.E.5
D. Duane Denney
Affiliation:
University of Oregon Medical School, Portland, Oregon
Ira B. Pauly*
Affiliation:
University of Oregon Medical School, Portland, Oregon
*
(All communications and requests for reprints should be directed to Dr. Pauly).
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Extract

The adult adjustment of children who were partially reared in foundling homes or other child care institutions is largely unknown. There is ample proof that major personality and character disturbances attributed to lack of maternal or emotional nurture appear in many children during or soon after periods of institutional care. Several authoritative reviews of the subject have appeared (Bowlby, 1952; Yarrow, 1961; Ainsworth et al., 1962). The later history of such children is much less clear. Retrospective studies of persons located through psychiatric clinics or delinquent groups suggest that considerable psycho-social disability persists well into adolescence. In particular, shallow feelings and loyalties, inability to form or tolerate emotional relationships, and asocial behaviour are frequently described (Bowlby, 1946; Goldfarb, 1947). However, other evidence supports at least partial spontaneous recovery (Beres and Obers, 1950; Clarke and Clarke, 1959; Stott, 1956). The adult fate of children who receive institutional care, though of compelling theoretical and practical interest, remains speculative.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 112 , Issue 492 , November 1966 , pp. 1103 - 1110
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1966 

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Footnotes

∗

This research was supported by the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon.

References

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