Poster #57 - Novelty Preferences of Infants in Institutional Care: Turkish Care Types Study

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Findings have revealed negative consequences of institutionalization on the development of children (Dobrova-Krol et al., 2008; Güler et al., 2012; Rutter et al., 2010), but very few studies examined the consequences for infants who are currently staying in institutions. The current study aims to examine the novelty preference of infants as cognitive development indicator longitudinally and compared their development with the infants who have been reared by their biological parents. In addition, the moderation role of infants’ temperament was be investigated.
A total of 118 infants between the ages of three to 12 months participated in the study (Mean: 7.2). 63 of them were living in institutions, and 55 of them were living with their biological families. Infants were tested three times with four monthly intervals. Cognitive development was measured with the habituation novelty task (Domsch et al. 2009). The task consists of two parts. Looking preferences of infants to the new shape and new face on the computer screen was calculated by seconds. Temperament of the infants will be measured by the Infants Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ: Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003). Three temperament characteristics were measured which are perceptual sensitivity, soothability, and falling reactivity/rate of recovery from distress.
To compare institutional infants with the biologically reared group longitudinally, and to see whether temperament moderate their cognitive development, Hierarchical Linear Modelling was run (HLM): Version 7; Raudenbush, Bryk, Cheorg, & Congdon, 2004). Care type was coded as institution= 0, biological family= 1 and the time was centered to time1 and age was controlled in the analysis. According to results, the groups were not differentiated based on the novelty preferences to the face, but, they were differentiated in time for the preferences to new shape (see Table 1). Perceptual sensitivity predicted infants’novelty preferences at time one (b = .70, p <.05) which means that infants who have high perceptual sensitivity looked longer to the new shape. In addition, the interaction between group and perceptual sensitivity was significant at time one. According to the slope analysis, infants who were reared in institutions looked longer to the new shape if they had higher perceptual sensitivity compared to the biological family group. There was no group difference for children with low perceptual sensitivity (see Figure 1).
For the longitidunal results, the increase in the novelty scores of infants in time was not significant. However, the interaction between time*perceptual sensitivity (b = -.57, p < .05),, time*reacitivity (b = .71, p = .05), and time*biological family group (b = .83, p <.05) were significant. According to the slope analysis of time*perceptual senstivity interaction, there was a trend that novelty preferences of the infants with high perceptaul sensitivity decreased in time, compared to infants with low perceptual senstivity. Further slope results will be presented on the poster and general results will be discussed in the light of the literature about differential susceptibility and other individual factors.

Authors

• Zeynep Ertekin, Middle East Technical University
  Presenting Author

• Sibel Kazak Berument, Middle East Technical University
  Non-Presenting Author