Robert B. McCall - US grants

The intent of this project is to experimentally improve the stability and consistency of caregiving staff and to train them to be more socially responsive and developmentally appropriate in a St. Petersburg, Russia, baby home for children birth to 4 years, and to observe the consequences of such improved caregiving on early mental health, including the physical development, mental/developmental and social-emotional growth of the children who are adopted into the U.S.A. The development of children within the intervention baby home will be compared with baseline information, a baby home receiving training but no staffing changes, and a baby home receiving no intervention. Longer-term progress of children adopted into the USA will be compared with non-treated children from the same homes, adopted children from other St. Petersburg baby homes, home-reared American children, and perhaps unselected foreign adopted children in Minnesota.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We :propose-two studies aimed at assessing the long-term developmental effects of variations in early social- emotional experience and human relationships in children who are reared in orphanages in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation: These orphanages are acceptable on most standards of care except social-emotional development and caregiver-child relationship building, which are widely Relieved to be the major causal components that typically lead to long-term developmental limitations and mental health problems. These proposed studies, will be better able to attribute long-term outcomes to the early social-emotional rearing environment of these children than previous studies. ' Study 1 consists of the largest follow-up of children reared in orphanages that are deficient only with respect to their social-emotional environment who are then adopted into highly advantaged USA homes. Adoptive parents will respond to a comprehensive set of questionnaires, and responses compared to parent- reared samples, adopted American children that partially controls for the experience.of adoption and genetic and perinatal characteristics unique to adopted children, non-adopted siblings that control for the adoptive family environments, and teacher ratings of the adopted child versus an arbitrarily selected comparison child to provide an assessment of the social and academic behavior of children in the school context and to complement parental ratings. A check on respondent bias will also be made. Study 2 is the only study to follow up children from three of the same orphanages in Study 1 but who were exposed to quasi-experimental interventions designed to improve the early social-emotional environment and promote adult-child relationships. Children are subsequently either adopted into the same highly-advantaged USA homes or returned to their less-advantaged biological parents in St. Petersburg. These children will have been exposed to either a double intervention (caregiver training plus structural changes in the orphanage), training only, and no treatment. Parents will be assessed with the same questionnaire battery and their responses contrasted with the same comparison groups as Study 1. This study tests whether the early interventions have greater relative benefit for children subsequently reared in less- rather than more-advantaged families. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We :propose-two studies aimed at assessing the long-term developmental effects of variations in early social- emotional experience and human relationships in children who are reared in orphanages in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation: These orphanages are acceptable on most standards of care except social-emotional development and caregiver-child relationship building, which are widely Relieved to be the major causal components that typically lead to long-term developmental limitations and mental health problems. These proposed studies, will be better able to attribute long-term outcomes to the early social-emotional rearing environment of these children than previous studies. 'Study 1 consists of the largest follow-up of children reared in orphanages that are deficient only with respect to their social-emotional environment who are then adopted into highly advantaged USA homes. Adoptive parents will respond to a comprehensive set of questionnaires, and responses compared to parent- reared samples, adopted American children that partially controls for the experience.of adoption and genetic and perinatal characteristics unique to adopted children, non-adopted siblings that control for the adoptive family environments, and teacher ratings of the adopted child versus an arbitrarily selected comparison child to provide an assessment of the social and academic behavior of children in the school context and to complement parental ratings. A check on respondent bias will also be made. Study 2 is the only study to follow up children from three of the same orphanages in Study 1 but who were exposed to quasi-experimental interventions designed to improve the early social-emotional environment and promote adult-child relationships. Children are subsequently either adopted into the same highly-advantaged USA homes or returned to their less-advantaged biological parents in St. Petersburg. These children will have been exposed to either a double intervention (caregiver training plus structural changes in the orphanage), training only, and no treatment. Parents will be assessed with the same questionnaire battery and their responses contrasted with the same comparison groups as Study 1. This study tests whether the early interventions have greater relative benefit for children subsequently reared in less- rather than more-advantaged families.