Negative effects of institutionalization and positive effects of deinstitutionalization on children’s
wellbeing have been well documented. However, the majority of reports on institutional care rely
on adult interviews and there is a wide disparity of results and methodologies in few result-oriented
studies of deinstitutionalization outcome. In addition, though all over the world, especially in
developed countries, many children in orphanage have parents, little is known about on the effect
of having or not living biological parents and be institutionalized.
The present thesis aims generally to investigate whether institutionalization negatively impacts the
psychological adjustment of children. Specifically, this thesis aims at (1) exploring children’s
perceptions on institutionalization process; (2) investigating the influence of biological parental
living status on institutionalized children’s psychological adjustment; and (3) evaluating the
effectiveness of deinstitutionalization as well as conditions for better psychological adjustment
once children are deinstitutionalized. With a prospective longitudinal comparative design, focus
group discussions and self-report questionnaires were used by the present thesis to collect
respectively qualitative and quantitative data from 177 children aged 9 to 16 and their
parents/primary caregivers divided in 6 registered orphanages and 5 primary schools in Rwanda.
Grounded theory was used to analyze qualitative data whilst analysis of variance and multiple
regression were used to analyze quantitative data. Outcome variables included externalizing and
internalizing behavior, attachment and self-esteem.