Affective attunement in peer dyads containing children adopted from institutions

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Social Neuroscience

Background:

• Early institutional care can lead to behavioral and adrenocortical regulation deficits.
• These deficits may contribute to persistent social interaction difficulties in post-institutionalized children.
• Understanding peer interactions is crucial for identifying factors influencing social deficits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how post-institutionalized children interact with unfamiliar peers.
• To identify factors predicting the quality of social interactions in children with and without institutional care history.
• To investigate the relationship between social interaction, affect, and cortisol levels.

Main Methods:

• Dyadic interactions (N=58) between a target child (post-institutionalized or non-adopted) and a non-adopted peer were observed during games.
• Interaction quality and affect were coded for each child.
• Salivary cortisol levels were measured three times during the session.

Main Results:

• No significant group differences in behavior, affect, or cortisol were found between post-institutionalized and non-adopted children.
• For non-adopted children, positive affect was linked to peer affect and inversely related to peer cortisol changes.
• Post-institutionalized children's affect was not associated with peer affect or cortisol levels, suggesting a disruption in social contingency.

Conclusions:

• Social interaction quality in post-institutionalized children may not be regulated by typical dyadic feedback loops.
• Interventions for children with early adversity should prioritize fostering social skills through dyadic social contingencies.
• Focusing on peer-to-peer interactions may be more effective than individual behavior modification.