Parental Interpersonal Ease Moderates Behavioral Problems following Early Previously-Institutional Care: A Longitudinal Study

• In Event: Early childhood adversity

Abstract

Early caregiving adversity is a major risk factor for human development. Institutional caregiving (e.g., orphanage care) during early life increases the risk for behavioral problems. Previous research has shown that later-occurring positive parental influences are associated with optimal developmental outcomes in youth; however, few studies have examined these parental effects in a simultaneous and interactional manner. In the present study, we collected data three times across a 5-year period from 372 dyads of youth and their parents, of which 114 were internationally adopted children and adolescents (Mage at the first visit = 9.39 years, SD = 3.54; age range 3 to 17.17 years) who had experienced early institutional care and 258 were nonadopted children and adolescents (Mage at the first visit = 7.82 years, SD = 4.26; age range: 2.75 to 17.5 years). Participants completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/4-18; Achenbach, 1991) and a 2-minute videotaped observational session of parent-child interactions.
A three-way ANOVA revealed that parental interpersonal ease (defined as warm, emotionally connected, and comfortable demeanor during parent-child interactions) moderated the link between early institutional care and behavioral problems as a function of age (F (1, 161) = 5.09, p = 0.03), such that high parental interpersonal ease was associated with fewer behavior problems only in adolescents. A mixed linear model showed a significant interaction between time, child age, and parental interpersonal ease (F = 3.66, p = 0.03), suggesting that parental interpersonal ease predicted fewer behavioral problems as children matured into adolescence. Taken together, these findings show a link between later-occurring parenting behavior (as measured live) and an improvement in behavior problems that emerge in adolescence, potentially indicating that childhood is a sensitive period of heightened plasticity in behavioral development.
Keywords: early adversity, behavior problems, parental interpersonal ease

Authors

• Danruo Zhong, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Presenting Author

• Tricia Choy, University of California - Riverside

• Jessica S. Flannery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Christina Caldera, David Geffen School of Medicine

• Bonnie Goff, University of California Los Angeles

• Laurel J. Gabard-Durnam, Northeastern University

• Kathryn L. Humphreys, Vanderbilt University

• Dylan Gee, Yale University

• Eva H Telzer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Mor Shapiro, Kaiser Permanente

• Nim Tottenham, Columbia University