The effects of global severe privation on cognitive competence: extension and longitudinal follow-up. English and Romanian Adoptees Study Team

Child Dev. 2000 Mar-Apr;71(2):376-90. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00151.

Abstract

The current study extends previous research on a sample of children adopted into the United Kingdom following severe early deprivation and a comparison sample of nondeprived, within-country, early adoptees. We assessed 165 children adopted from Romania and 52 U.K. adoptees at age 6 years. Longitudinal data (at age 4 and 6 years) were available on 111 Romanian adoptees placed into U.K. homes before 24 months of age and on all U.K. adoptees. Results indicated that there was considerable catch-up among late-placed Romanian children from entry into the United Kingdom to age 6, but as a group they exhibited lower cognitive scores and general developmental impairment compared with earlier adopted Romanian children. In addition, the resilience suggested at the assessment at age 4 years was maintained longitudinally, but there was no further evidence of catch-up or recovery.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anthropometry
  • Child
  • Child Development / physiology*
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cognition Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Cognition Disorders / etiology*
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Male
  • Social Environment*