Biobehavioral Developmental Mechanisms Linking Early Institutional Care to Later Externalizing Psychopathology

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Current literature suggests that previously-institutionalized (PI) youth are more likely to display greater psychopathology than their never-institutionalized peers. Less is known, however, about the biological and behavioral developmental mechanisms linking early institutional care to increased psychopathology. The proposed symposium aims to move beyond identifying higher rates of psychopathology in PI youth, and instead focuses on elucidating biobehavioral processes that explain how early institutional rearing may be associated with subsequent displays of externalizing-type symptoms.
The longitudinal multi-method work presented here was conducted with two separate samples of PI youth and examined externalizing outcomes into middle childhood and adolescence. Study 1 and Study 2 present data collected from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP). Study 1 examines the biological embedding of early adversity on children’s cortical development and investigates how changes in the prefrontal cortex may be associated with subsequent externalizing psychopathology and cognitive function. Study 2 uses BEIP data to test the hypothesis that foster-care intervention reduces vulnerability to externalizing problems via longitudinal growth in parent-reported self-regulation. Study 3 presents data collected from a group of youth internationally adopted into the Midwest post institutional care, and examines whether distinct global, observed, and biological aspects of emotion regulation are associated with a greater likelihood of following more adaptive longitudinal externalizing trajectories. Our discussant, an expert in the effects of early stressful experiences on children's neurobiological and psychological development, will draw on findings from these studies, and his own work, to speak to future directions in research on adaptive functioning following early adversity.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Nicole Perry, University of Texas at Austin

Discussant

• Philip Fisher, Stanford University

Individual Presentations

• Prefrontal Cortex Structure Shaped by Early Institutionalization is Associated with Externalizing Psychopathology and Cognitive Capacity - Presenting Author: Margaret A. Sheridan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Mark Wade, University of Toronto; Kathryn L. Humphreys, Vanderbilt University; Kathryn Garrisi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Cora E Mukerji, Bryn Mawr College; Kinjal Patel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Nathan A Fox, University of Maryland - College Park; Charles H Zeanah, Tulane University; Charles A. Nelson, Harvard Medical School; Katie McLaughlin, Harvard University

• Developmental pathways linking early caregiving intervention to reduced externalizing behaviors in previously-institutionalized youth: findings from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project - Presenting Author: Cora E Mukerji, Bryn Mawr College; Mark Wade, University of Toronto; Nathan A Fox, University of Maryland - College Park; Charles H Zeanah, Tulane University; Charles A. Nelson, Harvard Medical School

• Emotion Regulation as a Predictor of Patterns of Change in Behavior Problems in Previously-Institutionalized Youth - Presenting Author: Nicole Perry, University of Texas at Austin; Bonny Donzella, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities