The Social Adaptation of Institution Childern
This was the subject of a research undertaken by a team appointed by the National Association for Mental Health, and generously financed by the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust.
The team consisted of Dr Frank Bodman (Director), Miss Margaret Mackinlay (Educational Psychologist) and Miss Kathleen Sykes (Psychiatric Social Worker). The Report, as it stands, is not being published, but a summary of it has appeared in the Lancet (28.1.50), and it is hoped that other sections may be printed elsewhere. A few points of general interest are noted here.
During the research, fifty-one children (nineteen girls and thirty-two boys) who had spent three years or more in institutions were studied together with a control group of fifty-two school children living in their own homes. Two of the institutions were modern ” grouped ” cottage homes ; the remainder were Homes of various types. In addition it was hoped to make a comparable study of a similar sized group of children brought up in foster-homes but great difficulty was experienced for various reasons, in obtaining access to these, and only twentythree could be studied, not all of them fully. The project, as planned, provided for a follow-up of every child seen in a Home, six to twelve months after leaving and to visit them again twelve to eighteen months after the original enquiry. It was not, in practice, found possible to adhere rigidly to this timetable, though the general aim of seeing every child again after the first visit as well as the people with whom he was then living, was, in the main, satisfactorily achieved. The children in the other groups were followed up after an interval of about a year.
To ascertain social capacity, Doll’s Vineland Social Maturity test was used in every case in addition to the Revised Stanford-Binet Test and others given by the psychologist. The report contains a description of the various types of Homes used for the investigation and discusses the points of difference between them. Differences in ” atmosphere ” are interestingly recorded by the social worker ; dealing with the social attitude of the ” Homes ” child to strangers, she writes : ” The children’s experience clearly varied, but it was only the exceptional Home which had achieved anything like a natural attitude. One’s reception varied from the competent and friendly way in which one might be met at the station and entertained with considerable poise and general conversation while waiting for a local bus, to the suspicious and reluctant attitude shown by a child commanded to come to the ” office ” for an interview of whose object he had no inkling. Quite apart from the lack of preparation in the latter case, such an attitude to a new situation must be based on general experience and reflects something about the child’s upbringing which is of great importance to him in his personal relationships in the world later.” Follow-up visits to Homes revealed the children’s longing for someone who would take a continuous personal interest in them, as despite the arrangements made by many Homes for keeping in touch after leaving for work, this did not fully meet the need.
” It was one of the hardest things about this investigation from the point of view of the social worker, that we should be debarred from giving active help or encouraging the permanence of one personal link.”
It was frequently recognized by many of the people consulted that much more attention should be given to devising a good After-Care scheme, ensuring close co-operation between all who had been or were now concerned with the child.
The psychologist’s section of the Report describes and discusses the tests given to the Homes children, and to the children in the control group. It further discusses the subsequent interviews which sought to elicit information from the children about the type of work they wanted to do on leaving school, and to find out what was their attitude to school. As a general rule a more friendly one was found in the control group and there appeared to be good staff-pupil relationships in all the four control schools visited.
With regard to the Homes children, the psychologist notes that the schools to which they went :
” Tended to regard them as inevitably problems, inevitably educationally backward, and frequently also intellectually dull. (This impression has been strengthened by more recent school visiting in connection with later work.) While admitting the very considerable possibility of the children being all these things, it is felt that in some cases the school’s reaction has been excessive and has tended only to exacerbate the problem.” The general conclusions reached as a result of this investigation are summarized by Dr. ?odman as follows :
1. The children brought up in institutions were less mature socially than those in the control group, as measured by the Vineland Social Maturity Test.
2. This relative lack of maturity is shown in fewer contacts with the community, and with the outside world, whether by organized social Activities, the radio or press. Less advantage is taken of the opportunity to explore the neighbourhood or to travel any distance from home. Less initiative is shown in taking responsibility IP1” himself or making practical plans for his future.
3- A little more than a third of the difference in j^aturity can be attributed to lack of opportunity and the restrictions associated with lr?stitutional life.
4. Thirty per cent, of institution children had n? contact with any relatives.
5. Less than 6 per cent, of institution children uad no friends while in the institution, but over .0 per cent, were friendless after leaving the xnstitution.
y. While less than a quarter of institution children belonged to some kind of youth Organization compared with more than half the control group; on leaving the institution Another 20 per cent, joined organized social activities, while of the control group more than a quarter abandoned youth organizations. 7. Nearly five times as many girls in the ??ntrol group compared with the institution SJrls, admitted an interest in boys. There was not much marked difference amongst the boys, ^ne boy in eight institution boys and one boy in five of the control group showed an interest in girls.
8. Only 40 per cent, of institution children were successful in obtaining the occupation of their choice, compared with nearly 60 per cent, of the controls.
9. Yet only 22 per cent, had changed their jobs compared with over 35 per cent, of the control group.
10. Rather more than one in seven institution children failed in their first job. Except for one boy they were all of a dull, if not very dull intelligence.
11. A greater proportion (over a third) of institution children expressed themselves as looking forward to further promotion or acquiring further skill; less than a quarter of the controls showed this ambition. This ambition appeared to be associated with at least average intelligence.
12. A very striking discrepancy appears in the family histories of the two groups of children. Amongst the institution children 17-6 per cent, had relatives in mental hospitals, another 17-6 in mental deficiency institutions and 37-2 per cent relatives who had been reported to have committed anti-social behaviour. Amongst the control group, there were no relatives suffering from mental illness or guilty of anti-social behaviour : 11*5 per cent, of the control group had mentally defective sibs and nearly a quarter had neurotic relatives.
13. The very high proportion of children with relatives of proved defect, disease or instability of mind (72-4 per cent.) suggests that contributing causes to their relative social immaturity are inherited constitutional factors.
14. Indeed when all the children, institution and controls, are regrouped according to parentage, whether of sound mental stock, or of unstable parentage, it is found that the differences in social maturity are exactly the same as when they are grouped according to the environment in which they have been raised.
15. This finding suggests that constitutional factors are at least as important as environmental factors in the subsequent social maturation.
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