Between 1947 and 1989, in communist Romania, abortion was banned and women were encouraged to have five or more children. By 1990, after the regime fell, parents had handed more than 170,000 children to orphanages. They lived in groups of 12 to 16 supervised by rotating carers.
American developmental scientists launched the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) in 2000. It aimed to study the effect of early institutionalisation on children’s development, and whether placing them in high-quality foster care would make a difference.
What they did: The study looked at 136 orphans aged under three. Half were put into foster care, while the remainder stayed in orphanages. Researchers also compared results to 72 never-institutionalised children. The study has tracked the children at frequent intervals.
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