Biological perspectives on the effects of early psychosocial experience

The impact of out-of-home care on brain development: a brief review of the neuroscientific evidence informing our understanding of children's attachment outcomes

Researchers interested in the effects of early experiences of caregiving adversity have employed neuroscientific methods to illuminate whether and how such environmental input impacts on brain development, and whether and how such impacts underpin poor socioemotional outcomes in this population. Evidence is compelling in documenting negative effects on the individual's neurodevelopment following exposure to adverse or disadvantaged environments such as institutionalization or maltreatment. Neuroimaging research focused specifically on attachment-relevant processing of socioemotional stimuli and attachment outcomes among children looked-after is scarcer, but largely consistent. This review begins by summarizing the key general brain structural and functional alterations associated with caregiving deprivation. Then, neuroscientific evidence that is more directly relevant for understanding these children's attachment outcomes, both by employing social stimuli and by correlating children's neural markers with their attachment profiles, is reviewed. Brief interpretations of findings are suggested, and key limitations and gaps in the literature identified.

Is Rejection, Parental Abandonment or Neglect a Trigger for Higher Perceived Shame and Guilt in Adolescents?

Theories of development point out that childhood experiences are relevant across the lifespan, and that the parent-child relationship is essential for a child's physical and psychological wellbeing. The aim of this study is to investigate whether parental abandonment influences self-conscious emotions such as guilt and shame. This quasi-experiment included 230 adolescents and teenagers (M = 17.1, SD = 1.82), and data were collected via a self-reported questionnaire administered online. We used the Guilt Inventory, the Experience of Shame Scale, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and the Parental Acceptance/Rejection Questionnaire. Results indicated that the child's environment was significantly associated with feelings of shame. Abuse is associated with both guilt and shame, while paternal rejection is associated with guilt. The environment in which children and teenagers develop is associated with how they perceive themselves in relation to others. This study underlines the importance of considering child development conditions and the paramount importance of social work assistance for abandoned children and teenagers.

Attachment dimensions and cortisol responses during the strange situation among young children adopted internationally

Children's attachments to their parents may help regulate their hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axes. Prior research has largely focused on children with relatively consistent and low-risk caregiving histories, resulting in limited knowledge about the associations between attachment quality and HPA axis reactivity among children who have experienced early adversity. This study investigated whether dimensional measures of attachment quality were associated with HPA responses to the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) among 64 children ages 11-33 months adopted internationally from institutional or foster care. Children who showed high levels of attachment avoidance exhibited a blunted cortisol response during the SSP. Conversely, children who sought proximity and contact with their adoptive parents exhibited an increase in cortisol reactivity during the SSP, followed by a return to baseline levels after the completion of the procedure. This association was independent of the previously reported association between parental insensitivity and blunted cortisol responses in this sample.

Communicating with children about 'everyday' pain and injury: A Delphi study

BACKGROUND

'Everyday' pain experiences are potentially critical in shaping our beliefs and behaviours around injury and pain. Influenced by social, cultural and environmental contexts, they form the foundation of one's understanding of pain and injury that is taken into adulthood. How to best communicate to young children about their everyday pain experiences, in order to foster adaptive beliefs and behaviours, is unknown.

METHODS

In this Delphi survey, we sought expert opinion on the key messages and strategies that parents/caregivers can consider when communicating with young children (aged 2-7 years) about 'everyday' pain that is most likely to promote recovery, resilience and adaptive pain behaviours. Eighteen experts participated including specialists in paediatric pain, trauma, child development, and psychology; educators and parents. The survey included three rounds.

RESULTS

Response rate was over 88%. Two hundred fifty-three items were raised; 187 reached 'consensus' (≥80% agreement among experts). Key messages that the experts agreed to be 'very important' were aligned with current evidence-based understandings of pain and injury. Strategies to communicate messages included parent/caregiver role-modelling, responses to child pain, and discussion during and/or after a painful experience. Other key themes included promoting emotional development, empowering children to use active coping strategies, and resilience building.

CONCLUSIONS

This diverse set of childhood, pain and parenting experts reached consensus on 187 items, yielding 12 key themes to consider when using everyday pain experiences to promote adaptive pain beliefs and behaviours in young children.

Parent-Child Play and the Emergence of Externalizing and Internalizing Behavior Problems in Childhood: A Systematic Review

It has widely been accepted that play has a major role in human development. The play situation is considered a save and controlled space in which children can learn to express their problems and to regulate their emotions, thus promoting emotional and behavioral adjustment. In early childhood, this process is thought to emerge in close interaction with caregivers. Parent-child play is thus viewed as an ideal window for parents to connect with their children and to support them in their social-emotional development. In this preregistered systematic review, we sought to integrate evidence from developmental and clinical psychology to shed more light on the role of parents in the relationship between parent-child play and children's behavioral adjustment as expressed in internalizing or externalizing behavior. Our review revealed that increased harsh control during play interactions as well as a lack of parental responsiveness, warmth and sensitivity were found to be associated with increased behavioral problems. Yet, no protective effect of warmth or responsiveness could be found in the context of risk groups. Moreover, the included studies indicated that positive affect expressed by parents during parent-child play was associated with fewer behavior problems in children, while negative affect was associated with more behavior problems. In general, this review revealed that quality and quantity of playful parent-child interactions were reduced in children with behavioral problems of both domains compared to children without behavioral problems. These findings illustrate the important role of parental characteristics during play interactions and their possible impact on children's behavioral adjustment.

Exploring EFs and Math Abilities in Highly Deprived Contexts

Executive functions (EFs)’ development is critically affected by childhood adversity exposure. Although recent studies underlined the deleterious effects of early life stresses on working memory (WM) and inhibitory control, they were scarcely investigated in war context especially in relation with learning abilities. In order to fill this gap, we designed a research with the aim to evaluate EFs together with early math skills. In particular, we conducted a study involving 150 children divided into three groups: 48 Yazidis (M_age = 71 months, SD = 6.59), 47 Syrian refugees (M_age = 68.77 months, SD = 7, age), and 55 Italians (M_age = 68.65 months, SD = 2.88) attending the third year of kindergarten in Italy or inserted in Psyco-Social-Support activities in Iraq. The children were evaluated with a variety of tasks assessing WM, inhibitory control, counting, digit-quantity mapping, and digit naming skills. The results indicated substantial differences both in EFs and early numerical abilities between the deprived groups and the Italian children. Data are discussed in terms of implications for children both exposed to mainstream school environments and living in socio-economically disadvantaged and deprived contexts.

Developmental Precursors of Relational Aggression From Late Childhood Through Adolescence

Relational aggression-a psychological form of aggression-has numerous negative consequences for physical and emotional health. However, little is known about the risk factors that lead youth to engage in relational aggression. Using multimethod data from a longitudinal research of 674 Mexican-origin youth, this study examined the influence of parents, siblings, and peers on the development of relational aggression. Increases in relational aggression from age 10 to 16 were associated with: (a) low levels of parental monitoring and (b) increased association with deviant peers and siblings. These results held across gender and nativity status. The findings suggest that multiple socialization agents contribute to the development of relational aggression. We discuss the practical implications for reducing relational aggression during adolescence.

Growth recovery in newly arrived international adoptees in Italy: relation to parenting stress

BACKGROUND

Following initial adversities, most internationally adopted children arrive with significant growth delays. Postplacement recovery has been widely documented, but research about risk or protective factors is still limited. Even less is known about the relationship between growth recovery and the quality of the family environment.

METHODS

Twenty-eight children in 26 adoptive families were involved in this longitudinal study. A comprehensive evaluation (including anthropometry, cognitive assessment [using the Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised], and completion by both parents of the Parenting Stress Index - Short Form) was done at arrival of the child, and 1 year later.

RESULTS

Results evidenced that on arrival nearly half of children had growth measurements in the normal range. All the children showed a significant recovery in height and weight at 6 and 12 months postplacement. Initial and follow-up growth measurements correlated strongly. Growth recovery was related to the age of the child at adoption, the proportion of time the child had resided in institutional care, as well as parenting stress. Results suggested that the higher the parenting stress experienced the less improvements occurred in children: for mothers for height and weight, for fathers for all the growth indicators.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggested the critical importance of family factor in influencing children's growth recovery.

Multidimensional human capital formation in a developing country: Health, cognition and locus of control in the Philippines

Economic success depends on multiple human capital stocks whose production is interrelated and occurs over many life stages. Yet, much empirical work fails to account for human capital's multidimensional nature and limits its focus to specific childhood stages. Using longitudinal data from the Philippines, I estimate a model of multidimensional human capital formation from birth through adulthood where health, cognitive, and noncognitive dimensions are jointly produced. I examine during which developmental stages parental investment is most influential and address the endogeneity of investment using a policy function where investment depends on child characteristics, exogenous conditions at birth and local prices. Findings imply that not only will early human capital disparities persist into adulthood without early remediation but also that cognitive gains yielded from early remediation will be lost without complementary investment in adolescence. Findings further suggest that interventions will be undervalued if their multidimensional effects are not accounted for.

Nurturing care: promoting early childhood development

The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide a historic opportunity to implement interventions, at scale, to promote early childhood development. Although the evidence base for the importance of early childhood development has grown, the research is distributed across sectors, populations, and settings, with diversity noted in both scope and focus. We provide a comprehensive updated analysis of early childhood development interventions across the five sectors of health, nutrition, education, child protection, and social protection. Our review concludes that to make interventions successful, smart, and sustainable, they need to be implemented as multi-sectoral intervention packages anchored in nurturing care. The recommendations emphasise that intervention packages should be applied at developmentally appropriate times during the life course, target multiple risks, and build on existing delivery platforms for feasibility of scale-up. While interventions will continue to improve with the growth of developmental science, the evidence now strongly suggests that parents, caregivers, and families need to be supported in providing nurturing care and protection in order for young children to achieve their developmental potential.

Executive Function in Previously Institutionalized Children

In studies of children adopted from institutions, being raised in an institution has been associated consistently with an increased risk of persistent cognitive, academic, and social-emotional problems. These findings raise questions about the neurocognitive mechanisms that contribute to these negative outcomes. Theory and models based on studies of animals indicate that development of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and executive function (EF) may be particularly susceptible to environmental influences during early childhood. In this article, we review recent studies of postinstitutionalized children that examined EF components such as inhibitory control, working memory, shifting, and planning. We then describe emerging research on the structure and function of the PFC. Converging evidence suggests both EF difficulties and alterations in development of the PFC following early institutionalization. We conclude by discussing possible explanations for these findings and implications for prevention and intervention, and by offering suggestions for ongoing research.

Parenting begets parenting: A neurobiological perspective on early adversity and the transmission of parenting styles across generations

The developing brains of young children are highly sensitive to input from their social environment. Nurturing social experience during this time promotes the acquisition of social and cognitive skills and emotional competencies. However, many young children are confronted with obstacles to healthy development, including poverty, inappropriate care, and violence, and their enhanced sensitivity to the social environment means that they are highly susceptible to these adverse childhood experiences. One source of social adversity in early life can stem from parenting that is harsh, inconsistent, non-sensitive or hostile. Parenting is considered to be the cornerstone of early socio-emotional development and an adverse parenting style is associated with adjustment problems and a higher risk of developing mood and behavioral disorders. Importantly, there is a growing literature showing that an important predictor of parenting behavior is how parents, especially mothers, were parented themselves. In this review, we examine how adversity in early-life affects mothering behavior in later-life and how these effects may be perpetuated inter-generationally. Relying on studies in humans and animal models, we consider evidence for the intergenerational transmission of mothering styles. We then describe the psychological underpinnings of mothering, including responsiveness to young, executive function and affect, as well as the physiological mediators of mothering behavior, including hormones, brain regions and neurotransmitters, and we consider how development in these relevant domains may be affected by adversity experienced in early life. Finally, we explore how genes and early experience interact to predict mothering behavior, including the involvement of epigenetic mechanisms. Understanding how adverse parenting begets adverse parenting in the next generation is critical for designing interventions aimed at preventing this intergenerational cycle of early adversity.

Attention and language as mediators of academic outcomes following early psychosocial deprivation

Children adopted from institutions at older ages are at increased risk of persistent attention problems, lower cognition, and academic difficulties. This study examined cognitive and behavior problems as mediators of the association between early psychosocial deprivation and academic functioning. Participants were 8–17-year-old children adopted from psychosocially-depriving Russian institutions after 14 months of age ( n = 34) and before 9 months of age ( n = 39). Children completed a cognitive assessment, while their parents completed questionnaires on child behavior problems and use of learning support services in school. Children adopted after 14 months were found to have significantly lower vocabulary, higher levels of attention problems, and higher rates of using learning support services relative to children adopted before 9 months after controlling for age at assessment. The two groups did not differ significantly in nonverbal reasoning, anxiety, or oppositional behavior. Attention and vocabulary significantly mediated the association of early psychosocial deprivation with the use of learning support services. These findings suggest that interventions targeting attention regulatory and language skills may be beneficial in terms of improving school performance in this population.

Inhibitory control and working memory in post-institutionalized children

Inhibitory control and working memory were examined in post-institutionalized (PI) children adopted into United States families from Russian institutions. The PI sample originated from institutions that were less severely depriving than those represented in previous studies and approximated the level of psychosocial deprivation, which is characterized by adequate physical resources but a lack of consistent and responsive caregiving. PI children (N = 75; 29 male) ranged in age from 8-17 years (M = 12.97; SD = 3.03) and were grouped according to whether they were adopted after 14 months or before 9 months. A non-adopted comparison group (N = 133; 65 male) ranged in age from 8-17 years (M = 12.26; SD = 2.75). PI children adopted after 14 months of age displayed poorer performance on the stop-signal and spatial span tasks relative to PI children adopted before 9 months of age after controlling for age at assessment. The two PI groups did not differ in their performance on a spatial self-ordered search task. Older-adopted PI children also showed poorer spatial span task performance compared to non-adopted children, but younger-adopted PI children did not. Task performance was significantly associated with parent-rated hyperactive-impulsive behavior in everyday contexts. These findings suggest that exposure to prolonged early institutional deprivation may be linked with inhibitory control and working memory difficulties years after adoption.

Parent-reported executive functioning in postinstitutionalized children: a follow-up study

This study compared parent-rated executive functioning (EF) in 6- to 18-year-old children adopted from psychosocially depriving institutions to that in children adopted from severely or "globally" depriving institutions. Individual continuity in EF over 2 years was examined in children adopted from psychosocially depriving institutions. There were 471 children adopted from psychosocially depriving Russian institutions that provided adequate physical resources but failed to provide a consistent set of responsive caregivers. There were 111 children adopted in the early 1990s from globally depriving Romanian institutions that were characterized by physical deprivation as well as profound psychosocial neglect. Adoptive parents completed a background questionnaire and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). Children adopted from globally depriving institutions had significantly higher levels of EF difficulties than children adopted from psychosocially depriving institutions. For both groups, adoption after 18 months of age was associated with higher levels of EF difficulties. Children adopted from globally depriving institutions had higher levels of EF difficulties than the BRIEF standardization sample at younger ages at adoption. There was moderate to strong continuity in EF difficulties over 2 years in children adopted from psychosocially depriving institutions. These findings suggest that more severe early deprivation may lead to a higher risk of later EF difficulties, which may persist over time.

The utility of EEG band power analysis in the study of infancy and early childhood

Research employing electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques with infants and young children has flourished in recent years due to increased interest in understanding the neural processes involved in early social and cognitive development. This review focuses on the functional characteristics of the alpha, theta, and gamma frequency bands in the developing EEG. Examples of how analyses of EEG band power have been applied to specific lines of developmental research are also discussed. These examples include recent work on the infant mu rhythm and action processing, frontal alpha asymmetry and approach-withdrawal tendencies, and EEG power measures in the study of early psychosocial adversity.

Parent ratings of executive functioning in children adopted from psychosocially depriving institutions

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.

Language and cognitive outcomes in internationally adopted children

This study focuses on the association between language skills and core cognitive processes relative to the duration of institutionalization in children adopted from orphanages abroad. Participants in the adoptive group (n = 46) had arrived in the United States between the ages of 2 and 84 months (mean = 24 months), and had been living in the United States for 1–9 years. Drawing on both experimental and standardized assessments, language skills of the international adoptees differed as a function of length of time spent in an institution and from those of 24 nonadopted controls. Top-down cognitive assessments including measures of explicit memory and cognitive control differed between adopted and nonadopted children, yet differences between groups in bottom-up implicit learning processes were unremarkable. Based on the present findings, we propose a speculative model linking language and cognitive changes to underlying neural circuitry alterations that reflect the impact of chronic stress, due to adoptees' experience of noncontingent, nonindividualized caregiving. Thus, the present study provides support for a relationship between domain-general cognitive processes and language acquisition, and describes a potential mechanism by which language skills are affected by institutionalization.

Shaping brain development: mouse communal nesting blunts adult neuroendocrine and behavioral response to social stress and modifies chronic antidepressant treatment outcome

Early experiences shape brain function and behavior and, consequently, vulnerability to psychopathology at adulthood. Here we exploited the mouse communal nest (CN) paradigm in order to investigate the effect of the early social environment on the emergence of endophenotypes of depression and on antidepressant efficacy at adulthood. CN, which consists in a single nest where three mothers keep their pups together and share care-giving behavior until weaning, is characterized by high levels of maternal behavior and peer interactions, thus representing an highly stimulating environment. Our results show that, when compared to mice reared in standard laboratory conditions (SN), adult CN mice exhibited greater sucrose preference on the first days of the test, displayed reduced anhedonia during social stress and had lower corticosterone levels after acute and prolonged social stress. Furthermore, in line with previous work, CN displayed longer immobility than SN mice in the forced swim test. Here we show that such behavioral response is differently affected by antidepressants according to early experiences. A 3-week fluoxetine treatment affected only SN mice, leading to an increase of immobility duration up to the levels showed by CN mice, while acute fluoxetine administration decreased immobility duration in both groups. These results show that being reared in a CN profoundly changes developmental trajectories, reducing the adult display of endophenotypes of depression and modifying response to antidepressants. The present findings suggest that early experiences represent one of those factors to be taken into account to identify the appropriate individual pharmacological strategy to treat depression in patients.

The effects of early adversity on the adult and developing brain

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Recent advances in neuroimaging methods have provided new ways of unravelling the complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors that influence functional brain development in the critical first years of life. This has allowed new insights into the effects that early adverse experience can exert on the brain later in life. We review recent progress in the characterization of those effects and underlying mechanisms through which adverse environment influences the neurocognitive development.

RECENT FINDINGS

Socioeconomic background may have a profound effect on structural and functional brain development, especially in the domains of language and prefrontal executive control. These effects are mediated by several factors: diet, quality of parental care, impoverished environment, prenatal exposure to toxic substances and so on. Other circumstances such as perinatal brain injury, early sensory deprivation or limb malformation may result in atypical functional organization of the brain and lasting cognitive impairment of certain functions. Early experience of maltreatment or institutionalized care may alter the development of the social brain, contributing to negative mental health outcomes, which may be partially reversed through early intervention programmes.

SUMMARY

Subsequent models of psychiatric disorder should take into account early risk factors and embrace developmental models at multiple levels of biological organization. There is a continuing need for the study of optimal environmental input during sensitive periods in brain development.

The development of emotion

Given that they are responsible for much of the meaning that we attribute to our existence, emotions could be said to have a central role in the psychological life of humans. But given this fundamental level of significance, the construct of emotion remains poorly understood, with the field of emotion research being full of conflicting definitions and opposing theoretical perspectives. In this review, one particular aspect of research into emotion is considered: the development of emotion in infancy and early childhood. The development of the emotional life of the child has been the focus of a vast amount of research and theorizing, so in a brief review it is only possible to scratch the surface of this topic. Rather than any attempt at a comprehensive account, three perennial questions in theorizing and research on early emotional development will be considered. First, what develops in emotional development? Second, what is the relation of cognitive development to emotional development? Third, how has the study of early individual differences in emotion expression typically been approached? In relation to the first question, four theoretical approaches to emotional development are described. For the second question, the focus is on the relation of self-awareness to the development of emotion. Finally, for the third question, the use of temperament theory as a framework for understanding individual differences in emotion expression is examined. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Review: Adoption research: Trends, topics, outcomes

The current article provides a review of adoption research since its inception as a field of study. Three historical trends in adoption research are identified: the first focusing on risk in adoption and identifying adoptee—nonadoptee differences in adjustment; the second examining the capacity of adopted children to recover from early adversity; and the third focusing on biological, psychosocial, and contextual factors and processes underlying variability in adopted children’s adjustment. Suggestions for future areas of empirical investigation are offered, with an emphasis on the need to integrate research, policy, and practice.

Conceptualizing the Role of Early Experience: Lessons from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study

We draw upon data from a prospective, longitudinal study to evaluate the role of typically occurring variations in early experience on development from birth to adulthood. Such an evaluation is complex for both methodological and conceptual reasons. Methodological issues include the need to control for both later experience and potentially confounding third variables, such as IQ or temperament. Conceptual complexity derives from the fact that the effects of early experience can be both direct and indirect, can interact with other factors, and because whether an effect is found depends on what early experience and what outcomes are assessed. Even direct effects are probabilistic and are more in evidence with cumulative than with single measures. Often early experience has its effect indirectly by initiating a chain of events, by altering the organism in some way, and/or by promoting the impact of later experience. We provide examples where early experience is moderated and mediated by other factors and where it shows latent effects following developmental change. We illustrate developmental processes through which early experience has its effect and conclude that despite the complexity of development variations in early experience retain a vital place in the study of development.