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ABSTRACT
Objective
Early psychosocial deprivation increases the risk of later cognitive and psychiatric problems, but not all deprived children show these difficulties. Here, we examine the extent to which psychosocial deprivation increases the risk of later cognitive and psychiatric difficulties and the downstream consequences of this for risk-taking behavior in adolescence.
Method
Children abandoned to institutions early in life were randomly assigned to care-as-usual or a foster care intervention during infancy. A separate group of never-institutionalized children was recruited as a comparison sample. The current follow-up study included 165 children (51% female), 113 with a history of institutionalization and 52 with no such history. At age 12, caregivers reported on children’s psychiatric difficulties, and their IQ was assessed by standardized testing. At 16 years, risk-taking behavior was assessed from youth self-reports.
Results
Latent profile analysis revealed three subgroups of children with varying levels of cognitive and psychiatric difficulties: Low-Morbidity (n = 104, 62.7%), Medium-Morbidity (n = 46, 27.9%), and High-Morbidity (n = 15, 9.4%). Nearly half of the institutionalized children belonged to the High- or Medium-Morbidity subgroups; and institutionally-reared children were significantly more likely to belong to one of these profiles than never-institutionalized children. Compared to the Low-Morbidity subgroup, membership in the Medium-Morbidity profile was associated with higher levels of risk-taking behavior at age 16 years.
Conclusions
Children who experience psychosocial deprivation are considerably more likely to present with elevated cognitive and psychiatric difficulties in early adolescence and, for some children, this elevation is linked to heightened risk-taking behavior in later adolescence.
Acknowledgments
We thank the families and the children that participated in this study, as well as the research team and staff in Romania for their support and investment in this project.
Disclosure Statement
N.A.F. has received grant support from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (NIH ECHO) consortium, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Lumos Foundation. He has received royalties from Guilford Press and Harvard University Press. He has received honoraria for lectures to professional audiences. C.H.Z. has received grant support from the NIMH, the Palix Foundation, the Irving Harris Foundation, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Lumos Foundation, and the Inter-American Development Bank. He has received royalties from Guilford Press and Harvard University Press. He has received consulting fees from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He has received honoraria for lectures to professional audiences. C.A.N. has received grant support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Jacobs Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the James S. McDonnel Foundation, the Binder Family Foundation, the Lumos Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Harvard University. He has received royalties from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University Press. He has received honoraria for lectures to professional audiences and legal consulting fees. M.W. and D.C. report no competing or potential conflicts of interest
Supplementary Material
Supplemental material for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2020.1864737.