VINDICATING NEWT:

Orphanages Rival Foster Homes for Quality Child Care: Contrary to popular melodramas and musicals, orphanages in many countries seem to take care of abandoned children just as well as adoptive homes (Katherine Harmon, 12/17/09, Scientific American)

Orphanages linger in the popular imagination as unnatural relics, places from which neglected children need to be quickly rescued. And many international organizations and policymakers have made it a priority to reduce the role of these institutions, trying to place kids into family settings as quickly as possible.

But children in orphanages in less wealthy countries appear to be doing just as well as their orphaned or abandoned counterparts who live in private homes—even those living with family members—according to a new study that examined the well-being of some 3,000 children in five countries. "Health, emotional and cognitive function, and physical growth were no worse for institution-living [children]," the study authors report in a new paper published online Thursday in the journal PLoS ONE. They found, in fact, that "the institution-based children scored higher on intellectual functioning and memory and had fewer social and emotional difficulties."