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Foster care promotes adaptive functioning in early adolescence among children who experienced severe, early deprivation.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Experiences in early life lay the foundation for later development and functioning. Severe psychosocial deprivation, as experienced by children in early institutional care, constitutes an adverse experience with long-term negative consequences. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project sought to examine the effects of foster care as an alternative to institutional care for abandoned infants in Romanian institutions. METHODS:At a mean age of 22 months, institutionalized children were randomized to foster care or care as usual. At age 12 years, we followed-up with 98 of these children (50 randomized to foster care), as well as assessed 49 never institutionalized comparison children. Adaptive functioning was assessed across seven domains-mental health, physical health, substance use, risk-taking behavior, family relations, peer relations, and academic performance. Children at or above the threshold for adaptive functioning in at least six of seven domains were classified as having overall adaptive functioning in early adolescence. RESULTS:Among all children who had experienced severe early deprivation, 40% exhibited adaptive functioning. Children randomized to foster care were significantly more likely to exhibit adaptive functioning at age 12 years than children in the care as usual condition (56% vs. 23%). In support of external validity, children who met the threshold for adaptive functioning at age 12 years had higher IQs and were more physiologically responsive to stress. Among children randomized to foster care, children placed prior to age 20 months were more likely to meet the threshold for adaptive functioning than those placed after this age (79% vs. 46%). CONCLUSIONS:This study provides causal evidence that placing children into families following severe deprivation increases the likelihood of adaptive functioning in early adolescence.

SUBMITTER: Humphreys KL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6214343 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Foster care promotes adaptive functioning in early adolescence among children who experienced severe, early deprivation.

Humphreys Kathryn L KL Miron Devi D McLaughlin Katie A KA Sheridan Margaret A MA Nelson Charles A CA Fox Nathan A NA Zeanah Charles H CH

Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines 20180201 7

<h4>Background</h4>Experiences in early life lay the foundation for later development and functioning. Severe psychosocial deprivation, as experienced by children in early institutional care, constitutes an adverse experience with long-term negative consequences. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project sought to examine the effects of foster care as an alternative to institutional care for abandoned infants in Romanian institutions.<h4>Methods</h4>At a mean age of 22 months, institutionalized c ...[more]

PMID: 29389015

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Project description:Background: Neighborhood deprivation adversely effects neurodevelopment and cognitive function; however, mechanisms remain unexplored. Neighborhood deprivation could be particularly impactful in late childhood/early adolescence, in neural regions with protracted developmental trajectories, e.g., prefrontal cortex (PFC).Methods: The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study recruited 10,205 youth. Geocoded residential history was used to extract individual neighborhood characteristics. A general cognitive ability index and MRI scans were completed. Associations with neurocognition were examined. The relation of PFC surface area and cortical thickness to neighborhood deprivation was tested. PFC subregions and asymmetry, with putative differential environmental susceptibility during key developmental periods, were explored. Analyses tested PFC area as a possible mediating mechanism.Results: Neighborhood deprivation predicted neurocognitive performance (? ?= ?-0.11), even after accounting for parental education and household income (? ?= ?-0.07). Higher neighborhood deprivation related to greater overall PFC surface area (?p2 ?= ?0.003), and differences in leftward asymmetry were observed for area (?p2 ?= ?0.001), and thickness (?p2 ?= ?0.003). Subregion analyses highlighted differences among critical areas that are actively developing in late childhood/early adolescence and are essential to modulating high order cognitive function. These included orbitofrontal, superior frontal, rostral middle frontal, and frontal pole regions (Cohen's d ?= ?0.03-0.09). PFC surface area partially mediated the relation between neighborhood deprivation and neurocognition.Discussion: Neighborhood deprivation related to cognitive function (a foundational skill tied to a range of lifetime outcomes) and PFC morphology, with evidence found for partial mediation of PFC on neurocognitive function. Results inform public health conceptualizations of development and environmental vulnerability.

Project description:BackgroundChildren reared in institutions experience profound deprivation that is linked to impairments in social communication (SC). However, little is known about the long-term consequences of institutional rearing on SC through adolescence, and how SC deficits relate to broad-spectrum psychopathology. It is also unclear whether early removal from deprivation and placement into socially enriched environments remediates these difficulties.MethodsChildren reared in Romanian institutions from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project were randomly assigned to care as usual or foster care intervention in early childhood. An age- and sex-matched group of never-institutionalized children was also recruited. SC data from 208 children at age 8 and 129 children at 16 were collected using the Social Communication Questionnaire. Psychopathology was assessed as saved factor scores for general (P) and specific internalizing (INT) and externalizing (EXT) problems. We examined (a) whether institutional rearing is associated with continued SC deficits into adolescence; (b) whether early placement into foster care mitigates risk for SC problems; and (c) associations between SC and psychopathology from middle childhood (age 8) to adolescence (age 16).ResultsFindings suggest that: (a) institutionally-reared children have significantly more SC problems than never-institutionalized children at age 16; (b) children placed into foster care early in life have fewer problems with reciprocal social interaction compared to those with prolonged institutional rearing; and (c) deficits in SC at age 8 partially account for the link between institutional rearing and general psychopathology at age 16.ConclusionsEarly deprivation is associated with impairments in SC that persist into adolescence, with evidence for the remedial benefit of family-based care in the domain of reciprocal social interaction. Moreover, deficits in SC among ever-institutionalized children in middle childhood may increase the risk of broad-spectrum psychopathology in adolescence, thus providing one putative target for early intervention to safeguard against later psychiatric problems.

Dataset Information

Foster care promotes adaptive functioning in early adolescence among children who experienced severe, early deprivation.

Publications

Foster care promotes adaptive functioning in early adolescence among children who experienced severe, early deprivation.

Similar Datasets

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