Helping young people overcome early neglect

Results show that children in care for over 6 months had higher rates of social, emotional and cognitive problems in early adulthood. They were also more likely to have lower education and employment rates compared to infant adoptees from the UK.

This research could be used to improve the way professionals work with adoptees and people who have undergone childhood trauma. For example exploring how to better support children with experience in the care system.

The children were placed with stable, caring families.

Researchers wanted to understand:

• whether recovery from such early adversity was possible
• what difficulties the young people and their families would face

They were aged between 2 weeks old and 3 and a half years, and were assessed from childhood to adolescence. Their physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development was evaluated. 

They had either spent less or more than 6 months in an institution and were compared with 52 infant adoptees from the UK.

The study interviewed the parents and children and followed each adoptee’s progress until they were between 22 and 25 years old.

They included difficulties in:

• social relationships
• attention
• concentration

They were also more likely to report symptoms of depression and anxiety. Over 40 per cent of this group had contact with mental health services.

An important finding revealed that 1 in 5 of the children experiencing prolonged deprivation seemed to be unaffected.

Of the study, Jana says:

The team now aims to understand why such lasting effects were observed for many and why others showed remarkable resilience.

Their next focus is to identify the social and biological factors that could help explain resilience as well as persistence of difficulties.