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Parent ratings of executive functioning in children adopted from psychosocially depriving institutions
Emily C Merz1, Robert B McCall
1University of Pittsburgh, USA. emilymerz@gmail.com
Insights
Children adopted later from institutions show more executive functioning (EF) deficits. Adolescence exacerbates these EF difficulties, especially for older-adopted post-institutionalized (PI) children.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Psychiatry
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Post-institutionalized (PI) children often exhibit attention problems and impaired executive functioning (EF).
- Early psychosocial deprivation in institutional settings can negatively impact cognitive development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between age at adoption and EF deficits in PI children.
- To examine the impact of adolescence on EF in PI children with varying adoption ages.
Main Methods:
- Parental ratings of EF were collected from 288 school-age and 130 preschool-age children adopted from Russian institutions.
- Children were adopted from institutions providing adequate physical resources but lacking responsive caregiver interactions.
Main Results:
- A step-like increase in EF deficits was observed with later adoption ages (after 18 months).
- School-age children adopted after 18 months showed greater EF difficulties compared to younger-adopted peers and a normative sample.
- Adolescence onset worsened EF deficits more significantly in older-adopted PI children.
Conclusions:
- Prolonged early psychosocial deprivation is linked to an increased risk of EF deficits.
- The transition to adolescence presents particular challenges for older-adopted PI children, potentially exacerbating existing EF difficulties.
Background:
Previous studies have found that post-institutionalized (PI) children are particularly susceptible to attention problems and perform poorly on executive functioning (EF) lab tasks.
Methods:
Parent ratings of EF were examined in 288 school-age and 130 preschool-age children adopted from psychosocially depriving Russian institutions that provided adequate physical resources but not one-on-one interactions with a consistent set of responsive caregivers.
Results:
Results revealed a step-like association between age at adoption and EF deficits; school-age children adopted after 18 months of age had greater EF difficulties than younger-adopted children and the never-institutionalized normative sample. The onset of adolescence was associated with a greater increase in EF deficits for children adopted after 18 months than for younger-adopted children. Preschool-age children were not found to have greater EF difficulties than the normative sample.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that prolonged early psychosocial deprivation may increase children's risk of EF deficits and that the developmental stresses of adolescence may be particularly challenging for older-adopted PI children.
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