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Children in Institutionalized Care: Developmental Effects
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The unfavorable effects of residential care on child outcomes have been well-established in the literature by comparing institution-reared children with their parent-reared peers. Yet, there is no study to date that investigates how social and cognitive competencies change over time separately for each group of children. In this study, led by Child and Family Studies Laboratory, we examined whether the developmental change within one year in social (social competence, aggressive behavior, and social withdrawal), socio-cognitive (theory of mind), and cognitive (executive function and language) domains differs with respect to rearing context. Data were collected at two time points with one year apart from 73 institution-reared, 51 low- to middle socioeconomic status (SES) parent-reared, and 75 high-SES parent-reared Turkish children aged 3 to 5 years. In line with the literature, there was a main effect of institutional care on executive function, theory of mind, and language ability at baseline controlling for age and sex. Hierarchical regression analysis further revealed that institutional care predicted poorer developmental change in terms of social competence and language controlling for age and sex. This study provides a deeper understanding about the developmental pattern of children in typical and atypical rearing contexts.
Manuscript in preparation. |