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Published on: May 3, 2017
Designing research to study the effects of institutionalization on brain and behavioral development: the Bucharest
Charles H Zeanah1, Charles A Nelson, Nathan A Fox
1Department of Psychiatry, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. czeanah@tulane.edu
Insights
The Bucharest Early Intervention Project studied institutionalized children, finding that foster care improves development compared to institutional settings. This research offers critical insights into early deprivation and intervention effects.
Area of Science:
- Child development
- Developmental psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Institutionalization of children under two presents significant developmental risks.
- Limited research exists on the long-term effects of severe early deprivation.
- Understanding resilience and vulnerability in early experience is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of institutionalization on child development.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of foster care as an intervention for institutionalized infants and toddlers.
- To explore the neurobiological underpinnings of early deprivation and intervention.
Main Methods:
- The Bucharest Early Intervention Project is a large-scale, randomized controlled trial.
- Compares outcomes for children in institutional care versus those placed in foster care.
- Utilizes comprehensive measures of cognitive, social, and emotional development.
Main Results:
- Preliminary findings suggest significant developmental improvements in children placed in foster care.
- Institutionalization is associated with delays and impairments across multiple developmental domains.
- Early intervention demonstrates potential to mitigate negative effects of deprivation.
Conclusions:
- Foster care placement can significantly ameliorate the negative consequences of early institutional deprivation.
- The timing and nature of early experiences profoundly impact neurodevelopment.
- This study provides critical data on the resilience and vulnerability of the developing brain.
Abstract:
This paper provides an overview of the largest longitudinal investigation of institutionalized children less than 2 years old ever conducted. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project is an ongoing randomized controlled trial of foster placement as an alternative to institutionalization in abandoned infants and toddlers being conducted in Bucharest, Romania. In addition to describing the contexts in which this study is imbedded, we also provide an overview of the sample, the measures, and the intervention. We hope that the natural experiment of institutionalization will allow us to examine directly the effects of intervention on early deprivation. We hope it will provide answers to many of the critical questions that developmentalists have asked about the effects of early experience, the timing of deprivation, and the ameliorating effects of early intervention and provide clues to which underlying neurobiological processes are compromised by, and resilient to, dramatic changes in early experience.
