This study used a secondary analysis of data from 2003 to 2013 to better understand the situation of children temporarily abandoned in Romania. It looked at data for children aged 0-3 years who were abandoned in different hospital units or institutionalized in public orphanages or public and private foster care institutions.
The results showed that, despite recent initiatives to prevent child abandonment and to encourage deinstitutionalization of children, the problem persists in Romania. However, the total number of institutionalized children decreased from 32,171 children in 2003 down to 18,793 in 2013. In addition, the number of 0-3 year old children from public orphanages has decreased steadily from 2003 to 2006, which the author attributed to measures taken to promote the maintaining of families and prevention of child abandonment.
