The Adult Adjustment of Persons Institutionalized as Children

¹ Guest Worker, Psychiatric Genetics Research Unit, Maudsley Hospital, London, S.E.5
² Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Oregon Medical School, Portland, Oregon

Forty-seven adults, who as infants were in foundling homes for a mean period of 24.7 months are compared in psycho-social functioning to 50 adults who had no significant institutional experience. The comparison was based on school, police, veterans, armed services, and hospital records among several others, plus a personal interview and MMPI. The results were:

1. No differences between the two groups in psychiatric disability, IQ, or overall psycho-social adjustment were found, although the records of the persons institutionalized as children described disturbances typical of those reported in such children.

2. The psychopathology found was most clearly related to genetic factors. This may be an important uncontrolled variable influencing other research on the effects of institutionalization.

3. Neither the social class of the subject's first home nor the type of placement (adoptive or foster family) were related to adult psycho-social disability.

4. The evidence supports the contention that emotional trauma, at least of the type associated with institutional care, can be spontaneously reversed by the time adulthood is achieved.