Poster #95 - Early Parenting Intervention Enhances Inhibitory Control Development in Middle Childhood Among Previously Institutionalized Children

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Children with a history of extreme neglect such as institutionalization are at risk for developing behavioral problems (e.g., Koss et al., 2019). Problems may develop because infants in institutions do not receive sensitive care that could buffer the negative effects of distress on infant brain and physiology. Recent findings suggest that enhanced care following early adversities can improve children’s inhibitory control (Korom et al., 2021), highlighting the need for timely intervention. However, little is known about how early interventions that specifically target parental sensitivity and responsivity may shape previously institutionalized children’s inhibitory control.

This preliminary study leverages a randomized clinical trial design to investigate the effects of a parenting intervention designed to promote early sensitive and responsive care (Dozier & Bernard, 2019) among children at risk for not receiving optimal care. Given the centrality of parental influence in fostering executive functioning and behavioral development (e.g., Lind et al., 2017), we aimed to test the causal impact of an evidence-based parenting intervention on internationally adopted children’s inhibitory control in middle childhood, approximately 6 years after the intervention was completed.

Participants included 19 children who had been adopted internationally (52% male). Parents were recruited through adoption agencies in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. When children were infants, families were randomly assigned to receive an attachment-based experimental intervention (Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up, Dozier et al., 2017; N = 13) or an active control intervention (N = 6). When children were 8 years old (Mage = 8.71 years), they completed the Stop Signal Reaction Time (SSRT) task (Logan & Cowan, 1984). At age 9, children’s intellectual and cognitive abilities were measured using the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-III-COG; Schrank, 2011).

Multiple regression analyses with maximum likelihood estimation were performed to assess whether intervention assignment predicted children’s inhibitory control during middle childhood. Intervention assignment was significantly associated with children’s inhibitory control on the SSRT at age 8, such that children who received the attachment-based intervention had a faster reaction time than children who received the control intervention (B = 182.22, SE = 92.9, p = .050).

This preliminary study suggests that an intervention promoting sensitive parenting behaviors following early experiences of extreme neglect causally promotes better inhibitory control during middle childhood. These findings highlight the importance of parenting quality on children’s cognitive outcomes and demonstrates that an attachment-based intervention has long-term positive effects on inhibitory control development in children who experience early adversity.

Authors

• Amanda M. Flagg, State University of New York at Albany (SUNY Albany)
  Presenting Author

• Marta Korom, University of Delaware

• Alexandra Tabachnick, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Mary Dozier, University of Delaware