Abstract
At the turn of the century, infant mortality in American institutions for infants approached 100%. Policies initiated by Henry Dwight Chapin emphasized the placement of children in “boarding out” homes as quickly as possible and an increase in social attention paid to the infants that remained in the institutions. Chapin was evidently the first behavioral scientist who employed statistical procedures to uncover a critical period for social development in institutionalized infants. His evidence suggested overwhelmingly that the 1st year of life is the most critical when normal conditions of childrearing are replaced by a state of social deprivation, and that the first 6 months are more important than the second 6 months. While his influence in the history of child psychology has virtually been forgotten, citation analysis suggests an increasing awareness of his scientific importance.
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References
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This paper on Chapin follows a presentation given at the American Psychological Association convention in Washington, DC in 1986. I wish to thank Harold Bauer, who helped me dig out references, and the University of Manitoba, which provided a helpful faculty grant.
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Gray, P.H. Henry Dwight Chapin: Pioneer in the study of institutionalized infants. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 27, 85–87 (1989). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329906
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329906