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

SUBMITTER: Humphreys KL 

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

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature