Effects of Institutional Care

Institutionalising children has been shown to cause a wide range of problems for their development, well-being and longer-term outcomes. Institutional care does not adequately provide the level of positive individual attention from consistent caregivers which is essential for the successful emotional, physical, mental, and social development of children. This is profoundly relevant for children under 3 years of age for whom institutional care has been shown to be especially damaging.

Common issues for children in institutional care are a significantly increased risk of sexual and physical abuse, a lack of stimulation, and harsh discipline. Children in institutions are less likely to attend school, and are frequently isolated from their traditional communities. Long periods in an institution make it harder for a child to assimilate back into a family and community, and deny them access to the life-long attachments and community support systems that family relationships and communities can provide. For funders and implementing bodies, care in the community is a significantly more effective and sustainable use of resources since it avoids the high maintenance costs of institutions, and prevents many of the problems posed by institutional care.

It is widely accepted that institutions should be used as a last resort only. Countries which have traditionally relied on institutional care are now transforming their institutions into small family style group homes and actively pursuing preferences for community-based care options based around small family style units. This policy shift is urgently required in HIV/AIDS affected countries which are taking a backward step in resorting to the use of institutions to care for children orphaned or affected by the disease.

The body of literature contained in this section provides in-depth explanations of the damaging effects of institutionalisation on children and provides recommendations for alterative community care options.

Displaying 311 - 320 of 761

Browse Other Topics

Striving for the Sustainable Development Goals: What do children need to thrive?

Lucy Jamieson & Linda Richter - South African Child Gauge 2017, 01 Dec 2017

This essay critically engages with the 2030 Global Agenda and assesses the potential of the SDGs to transform our world to enable all children – regardless of race, gender, ability, or social background – to not only survive but thrive.

Substitute Child Care as a Current Problem of Social Care in the Czech Republic

Viera Vavrecková, Michaela Tichá, & Zlata Ondrúšová - DANUBE: Law, Economics and Social Issues Review, 01 Dec 2017

The objective of this essay is to determine how substitute child care in the Czech Republic has changed in the last ten years.

View Article

Time for Global Action: Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals

UBS Optimus Foundation & Child's i Foundation, 01 Dec 2017

In this video from Time for Global Action: Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, Stephen Ucembe shares his experience of living in an orphanage and how institutionalization was detrimental to his development and wellbeing.

View Video

The Relationship Between Institutional Environment, Guardian Involvement, Academic Achievement and Learning Motivation of Children Reared in a Malaysian Orphanage

A.J. Alfred, A.M. Ma’rof, N. Buang - Varia Pendidikan, 01 Dec 2017

This research was conducted to study the relationships between academic performance, learning motivation, institutionalised environments and guardian involvement of children reared in a Malaysian orphanage.

Effects of early institutionalization on emotion processing in 12-year-old youth

Johanna Bick, Rhiannon Luyster, Nathan A. Fox, Charles H. Zeanah, Charles A. Nelson - Development and Psychopathology, 22 Nov 2017

This study examined facial emotion recognition in 12-year-olds in a longitudinally followed sample of children with and without exposure to early life psychosocial deprivation (institutional care).

View Article

Peer Problems Among Postinstitutionalized, Internationally Adopted Children: Relations to Hypocortisolism, Parenting Quality, and ADHD Symptoms

Clio E. Pitula, Carrie E. DePasquale, Shanna B. Mliner, Megan R. Gunnar - Child Development, 08 Nov 2017

Seventy-eight postinstitutionalized (PI) children adopted at ages 17–36 months were assessed 2, 8, 16, and 24 months postadoption on measures of cortisol and parenting quality, and compared to same-aged children adopted from foster care (FC, n = 45) and nonadopted children (NA, n = 45).

View Article

The Children Behind the Wall

Lumos, 07 Nov 2017

This publication from Lumos describes the institutionalization of children the world over and its impacts, calling for an end to institutions and highlighting some of the particular groups of children who are most deprived of liberty.

Implementation of deinstitutionalization of child care institutions in post-soviet countries: The case of Azerbaijan

Aytakin Huseynli - Child Abuse & Neglect, 04 Nov 2017

This study examined the status of the State Program on Deinstitutionalization and Alternative Care (SPDAC), a public policy aimed at transforming 55 institutions covering 14,500 children during 2006–2016 in Azerbaijan.

View Article

Suicide behaviour among Guyanese orphans: Identification of suicide risk and protective factors in a low- to middle- income country

Ellen-ge D. Denton, George J. Musa & Christina Hoven - Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 02 Nov 2017

Guided by an ideation-to-action theoretical framework for suicide prevention, the goal of the proposed research study is to describe and identify risk and protective factor correlates of youth suicidal behaviour among those at highest risk for suicide – orphans who reside in a low- and middle-income country (LMIC) institutional setting.

View Article

Finding Families - The State of Residential Care for Children and Implications for Human Development: A Research Review

Catholic Relief Services, Changing the Way We Care, 01 Nov 2017

This review is a summary of the literature, from multiple disciplines, on residential child care and its deleterious effects on children.