Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T18:27:27.886Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Enhancing executive functioning among toddlers in foster care with an attachment-based intervention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2017

Teresa Lind
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
K. Lee Raby
Affiliation:
University of Utah
E. B. Caron
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
Caroline K. P. Roben
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
Mary Dozier*
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Mary Dozier, Department of Brain and Psychological Sciences, University of Delaware, 108 Wolf Hall, Newark, DE 19716; E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

Young children in foster care often experience adversity, such as maltreatment and lack of stability in early caregiving relationships. As a result, these children are at risk for a range of problems, including deficits in executive functioning. The Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up for Toddlers (ABC-T) intervention was designed to help foster parents behave in ways that promote the development of young children's emerging self-regulatory capabilities. Participants included 173 parent–toddler dyads in three groups: foster families that were randomly assigned to receive either the ABC-T intervention (n = 63) or a control intervention (n = 58), as well as low-risk parent–toddler dyads from intact families (n = 52). At a follow-up conducted when children were approximately 48 months old, children's executive functioning abilities were assessed with the attention problems scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000) and a graded version of the Dimensional Change Card Sort developed for preschoolers (Beck, Schaefer, Pang, & Carlson, 2011). Results showed that foster children whose parents received the ABC-T intervention and low-risk children never placed in foster care had fewer parent-reported attention problems and demonstrated greater cognitive flexibility during the Dimensional Change Card Sort than foster children whose parents received the control intervention. These results indicate that an attachment-based intervention implemented among toddlers in foster care is effective in enhancing children's executive functioning capabilities.

Type
Special Issue Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The project described was supported by National Institutes of Mental Health Grants R01MH052135 and R01MH074374 (to M.D.). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health. We thank the children and families who participated in the research and gratefully acknowledge the support of child protection agencies in Delaware.

References

Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2000). Manual for the ASEBA preschool forms and profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Allan, N. P., Hume, L. E., Allan, D. M., Farrington, A. L., & Lonigan, C. J. (2014). Relations between inhibitory control and the development of academic skills in preschool and kindergarten: A meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology, 50, 236823679. doi:10.1037/a0037493 Google Scholar
Asok, A., Bernard, K., Roth, T. L., Rosen, J. B., & Dozier, M. (2013). Parental responsiveness moderates the association between early-life stress and reduced telomere length. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 577585. doi:10.1017/S0954579413000011 Google Scholar
Barkley, R. A. (2013). Defiant children: A clinician's manual for assessment and parent training (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Beck, D. M., Schaefer, C., Pang, K., & Carlson, S. M. (2011). Executive function in preschool children: Test–retest reliability. Journal of Cognition and Development, 12, 169193. doi:10.1080/15248372.2011.563485 Google Scholar
Belsky, J., & Fearon, R. M. P. (2002). Early attachment security, subsequent maternal sensitivity, and later child development: Does continuity in development depend upon continuity of caregiving? Attachment & Human Development, 4, 361387. doi:10.1080/1461673021016726 Google Scholar
Bernard, K., Butzin-Dozier, Z., Rittenhouse, J., & Dozier, M. (2010). Cortisol production patterns in young children living with birth parents vs children placed in foster care following involvement of Child Protective Services. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 164, 438443. doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2010.54 Google Scholar
Bernard, K., Dozier, M., Bick, J., & Gordon, M. K. (2015). Intervening to enhance cortisol regulation among children at risk for neglect: Results of a randomized clinical trial. Development and Psychopathology, 27, 829841. doi:10.1017/S095457941400073X CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernard, K., Dozier, M., Bick, J., Lewis-Morrarty, E., Lindhiem, O., & Carlson, E. A. (2012). Enhancing attachment organization among maltreated children: Results of a randomized clinical trial. Child Development, 83, 623636. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01712.x Google Scholar
Bernedo, I. M., Salas, M. D., Fuentes, M. J., & García-Martín, M. Á. (2014). Foster children's behavior problems and impulsivity in the family and school context. Children and Youth Services Review, 42, 4349. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.03.022 Google Scholar
Bernier, A., Beauchamp, M. H., Carlson, S. M., & Lalonde, G. (2015). A secure base from which to regulate: Attachment security in toddlerhood as a predictor of executive functioning at school entry. Developmental Psychology, 51, 11771189. doi:10.1037/dev0000032 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernier, A., Carlson, S. M., & Whipple, N. (2010). From external regulation to self-regulation: Early parenting precursors of young children's executive functioning. Child Development, 81, 326339. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01397.x Google Scholar
Bick, J., & Dozier, M. (2013). The effectiveness of an attachment-based intervention in promoting foster mothers’ sensitivity toward foster infants. Infant Mental Health Journal, 34, 95103. doi:10.1002/imhj.21373 Google Scholar
Bick, J., Dozier, M., & Moore, S. (2012). Predictors of treatment use among foster mothers in an attachment-based intervention program. Attachment & Human Development, 14, 439452. doi:10.1080/14616734.2012.706391 Google Scholar
Bindman, S. W., Pomerantz, E. M., & Roisman, G. I. (2015). Do children's executive functions account for associations between early autonomy-supportive parenting and achievement through high school? Journal of Educational Psychology, 107, 756770. doi:10.1037/edu0000017 Google Scholar
Bingham, C. R., Loukas, A., Fitzgerald, H. E., & Zucker, R. A. (2003). Parental ratings of son's behavior problems in high-risk families: Convergent validity, internal structure, and interparent agreement. Journal of Personality Assessment, 80, 237251. doi:10.1207/S15327752JPA8003_03 Google Scholar
Blair, C. B. (2016). The development of executive functions and self-regulation: A bidirectional psychobiological model. In Vohs, K. D. & Baumeister, R. F. (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications (3rd ed., pp. 417439). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Brooks-Gunn, J., Klebanov, P. K., Liaw, F.-R., & Spiker, D. (1993). Enhancing the development of low-birthweight, premature infants: Changes in cognition and behavior over the first three years. Child Development, 64, 736753. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1993.tb02940.x Google Scholar
Bruce, J., Fisher, P. A., Pears, K. C., & Levine, S. (2009). Morning cortisol levels in preschool-aged foster children: Differential effects of maltreatment type. Developmental Psychobiology, 51, 1423. doi:10.1002/dev.20333 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, S. M. (2005). Developmentally sensitive measures of executive function in preschool children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 28, 595616. doi:10.1207/s15326942dn2802_3 Google Scholar
Carlson, S. M., Mandell, D. J., & Williams, L. (2004). Executive function and theory of mind: Stability and prediction from ages 2 to 3. Developmental Psychology, 40, 11051122. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.40.6.1105 Google Scholar
Caron, E. B., Bernard, K., & Dozier, M. (2016). In vivo feedback predicts parent behavior change in the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up intervention. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/15374416.2016.1141359 Google Scholar
Caron, E. B., Weston-Lee, P., Haggerty, D., & Dozier, M. (2016). Community implementation outcomes of Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up. Child Abuse & Neglect, 53, 128137. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.11.010 Google Scholar
Cassidy, J. (1994). Emotion regulation: Influences of attachment relationships. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(2–3, Serial No. 240), 228249. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5834.1994.tb01287.x Google Scholar
Clausen, J. M., Landsverk, J., Ganger, W., Chadwick, D., & Litrownik, A. (1998). Mental health problems of children in foster care. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 7, 283296. doi:10.1023/A:1022989411119 Google Scholar
Cole, P. M., Tan, P. Z., Hall, S. E., Zhang, Y., Crnic, K. A., Blair, C. B., & Li, R. (2011). Developmental changes in anger expression and attention focus: Learning to wait. Developmental Psychology, 47, 10781089. doi:10.1037/a0023813 Google Scholar
Conway, A., McDonough, S. C., Mackenzie, M., Miller, A., Dayton, C., Rosenblum, K., … Sameroff, A. (2014). Maternal sensitivity and latency to positive emotion following challenge: Pathways through effortful control. Infant Mental Health Journal, 35, 274284. doi:10.1002/imhj.21445 Google Scholar
Conway, A., & Stifter, C. A. (2012). Longitudinal antecedents of executive function in preschoolers. Child Development, 83, 10221036. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01756.x Google Scholar
Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135168. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diener, M. L., & Mangelsdorf, S. C. (1999). Behavioral strategies for emotion regulation in toddlers: Associations with maternal involvement and emotional expressions. Infant Behavior and Development, 22, 569583. doi:10.1016/S0163-6383(00)00012-6 Google Scholar
Dozier, M., & Bick, J. (2007). Changing caregivers: Coping with early adversity. Pediatric Annals, 36, 205208. doi:10.3928/0090-4481-20070401-09 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dozier, M., Higley, E., Albus, K. E., & Nutter, A. (2002). Intervening with foster infants’ caregivers: Targeting three critical needs. Infant Mental Health Journal, 23, 541554. doi:10.1002/imhj.10032 Google Scholar
Dozier, M., & Lindhiem, O. (2006). This is my child: Differences among foster parents in commitment to their young children. Child Maltreatment, 11, 338345. doi:10.1177/1077559506291263 Google Scholar
Dozier, M., Lindhiem, O., Lewis, E., Bick, J., Bernard, K., & Peloso, E. (2009). Effects of a foster parent training program on young children's attachment behaviors: Preliminary evidence from a randomized clinical trial. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 26, 321332. doi:10.1007/s10560-009-0165-1 Google Scholar
Dozier, M., Meade, E., & Bernard, K. (2014). Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up: An intervention for parents at risk of maltreating their infants and toddlers. In Timmer, S. & Urquiza, A. (Eds.), Advances in child abuse prevention knowledge (Vol. 3, pp. 4359). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A. J., & Spinrad, T. L. (1998). Parental socialization of emotion. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 241273. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0904_1 Google Scholar
Fabes, R. A., Leonard, S. A., Kupanoff, K., & Martin, C. L. (2001). Parental coping with children's negative emotions: Relations with children's emotional and social responding. Child Development, 72, 907920. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00323 Google Scholar
Fisher, P. A., Gunnar, M. R., Dozier, M., Bruce, J., & Pears, K. C. (2006). Effects of therapeutic interventions for foster children on behavioral problems, caregiver attachment, and stress regulatory neural systems. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1094, 215225. doi:10.1196/annals.1376.023 Google Scholar
Harrist, A. W., & Waugh, R. M. (2002). Dyadic synchrony: Its structure and function in children's development. Developmental Review, 22, 555592. doi:10.1016/S0273-2297(02)00500-2 Google Scholar
Hofer, M. A. (2004). Developmental psychobiology of early attachment. In Casey, B. J. (Ed.), Developmental psychobiology (pp. 128). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.Google Scholar
Hughes, C., & Ensor, R. (2006). Behavioural problems in 2-year-olds: Links with individual differences in theory of mind, executive function and harsh parenting. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 488497. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2005.01519.x Google Scholar
Hughes, C., & Ensor, R. (2007). Executive function and theory of mind: Predictive relations from ages 2 to 4. Developmental Psychology, 43, 14471459. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1447 Google Scholar
Hughes, C., & Ensor, R. (2011). Individual differences in growth in executive function across the transition to school predict externalizing and internalizing behaviors and self-perceived academic success at 6 years of age. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108, 663676. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2010.06.005 Google Scholar
Jackson, Y., Gabrielli, J., Fleming, K., Tunno, A. M., & Makanui, P. K. (2014). Untangling the relative contribution of maltreatment severity and frequency to type of behavioral outcome in foster youth. Child Abuse & Neglect, 38, 11471159. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.01.008 Google Scholar
Keller, T. E., Wetherbee, K., Le Prohn, N. S., Payne, V., Sim, K., & Lamont, E. R. (2001). Competencies and problem behaviors of children in family foster care: Variations by kinship placement status and race. Children and Youth Services Review, 23, 915940. doi:10.1016/S0190-7409(01)00175-X Google Scholar
Kopp, C. B. (1982). Antecedents of self-regulation: A developmental perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 199214. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.18.2.199 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kopp, C. B. (2002). Commentary: The codevelopments of attention and emotion regulation. Infancy, 3, 199208. doi:10.1207/S15327078IN0302_5 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kopp, C. B. (2011). Development in the early years: Socialization, motor development, and consciousness. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 165187. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.121208.131625 Google Scholar
Laible, D. J., Thompson, R. A., & Froimson, J. (2015). Early socialization: The influence of close relationships. In Grusec, J. E. & Hastings, P. D. (Eds.), Handbook of socialization: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 3559). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Laucht, M., Esser, G., & Schmidt, M. H. (2001). Differential development of infants at risk for psychopathology: The moderating role of early maternal responsivity. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 43, 292300. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8749.2001.tb00208.x Google Scholar
Lewis, E. E., Dozier, M., Ackerman, J. P., & Sepulveda-Kozakowski, S. (2007). The effect of placement instability on adopted children's inhibitory control abilities and oppositional behavior. Developmental Psychology, 43, 14151427. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1415 Google Scholar
Lewis-Morrarty, E., Dozier, M., Bernard, K., Terracciano, S. M., & Moore, S. V. (2012). Cognitive flexibility and theory of mind outcomes among foster children: Preschool follow-up results of a randomized clinical trial. Journal of Adolescent Health, 51, S17S22. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.05.005 Google Scholar
Lind, T., Bernard, K., Ross, E., & Dozier, M. (2014). Intervention effects on negative affect of CPS-referred children: Results of a randomized clinical trial. Child Abuse & Neglect, 38, 14591467. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.04.004 Google Scholar
Low, J. A., & Webster, L. (2015). Attention and executive functions as mediators of attachment and behavior problems. Social Development. Advance online publication. doi:10.1111/sode.12166 Google Scholar
Mattison, R. E., & Spitznagal, E. L. (1999). Long-term stability of Child Behavior Checklist profile types in a child psychiatric clinic population. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 38, 700707. doi:10.1097/00004583-199906000-00017 Google Scholar
McNeil, C. B., & Hembree-Kligin, T. L. (2010). Parent-child interaction therapy (2nd ed.). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Miyake, A. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “frontal lobe” tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 49100. doi:10.1006/cogp.1999.0734 Google Scholar
Moilanen, K. L., Shaw, D. S., Dishion, T. J., Gardner, F., & Wilson, M. (2010). Predictors of longitudinal growth in inhibitory control in early childhood. Social Development, 19, 326347. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00536.x Google Scholar
Pears, K. C., Fisher, P. A., Bruce, J., Kim, H. K., & Yoerger, K. (2010). Early elementary school adjustment of maltreated children in foster care: The roles of inhibitory control and caregiver involvement. Child Development, 81, 15501564. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01491.x Google Scholar
Pears, K. C., Kim, H. K., Buchanan, R., & Fisher, P. A. (2015). Adverse consequences of school mobility for children in foster care: A prospective longitudinal study. Child Development, 86, 12101226. doi:10.1111/cdev.12374 Google Scholar
Premo, J. E., & Kiel, E. J. (2014). The effect of toddler emotion regulation on maternal emotion socialization: Moderation by toddler gender. Emotion, 14, 782793. doi:10.1037/a0036684 Google Scholar
Ramey, C. T., Yeates, K. O., & Short, E. J. (1984). The plasticity of intellectual development: Insights from preventative intervention. Child Development, 55, 19131925. doi:10.2307/1129938 Google Scholar
Raver, C. C. (1996). Relations between social contingency in mother-child interaction and 2-year-olds’ social competence. Developmental Psychology, 32, 850859. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.32.5.850 Google Scholar
Sanchirico, A., & Jablonka, K. (2000). Keeping foster children connected to their biological parents: The impact of foster parent training and support. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 17, 185203. doi:10.1023/A:1007583813448 Google Scholar
Semrud-Clikeman, M., Walkowiak, J., Wilkinson, A., & Butcher, B. (2010). Executive functioning in children with Asperger syndrome, ADHD-combined type, ADHD-predominately inattentive type, and controls. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40, 10171027. doi:10.1007/s10803-010-0951-9 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Serbin, L. A., Hubert, M., Hastings, P. D., Stack, D. M., & Schwartzman, A. E. (2014). The influence of parenting on early childhood health and health care utilization. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 39, 11611174. doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsu050 Google Scholar
Shaw, D. S., Bell, R. Q., & Gilliom, M. (2000). A truly early starter model of antisocial behavior revisited. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 3, 155172. doi:10.1023/A:1009599208790 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Silk, J. S., Shaw, D. S., Prout, J. T., O'Rourke, F., Lane, T. J., & Kovacs, M. (2011). Socialization of emotion and offspring internalizing symptoms in mothers with childhood-onset depression. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 32, 127136. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2011.02.001 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sroufe, L. A. (1979). The coherence of individual development: Early care, attachment, and subsequent developmental issues. American Psychologist, 34, 834841. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.34.10.834 Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A. (1996). Emotional development. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sroufe, L. A. (2005). Attachment and development: A prospective, longitudinal study from birth to adulthood. Attachment & Human Development, 7, 349367. doi:10.1080/14616730500365928 Google Scholar
Sulik, M. J., Blair, C. B., Mills-Koonce, R., Berry, D. J., Greenberg, M., & the Family Life Project Investigators. (2015). Early parenting and the development of externalizing behavior problems: Longitudinal mediation through children's executive function. Child Development, 86, 15881603. doi:10.1111/cdev.12386 Google Scholar
Tarren-Sweeney, M. (2008). Retrospective and concurrent predictors of the mental health of children in care. Children and Youth Services Review, 30, 125. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2007.05.014 Google Scholar
US Department of Health and Human Services. (2015). Child welfare outcomes 20102013: Report to Congress. Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/cwo10_13.pdf Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D. (2006). The Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS): A method of assessing executive function in children. Nature Protocols, 1, 297301. doi:10.1038/nprot.2006.46 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zelazo, P. D., Carlson, S. M., & Kesek, A. (2008). Development of executive function in childhood. In Nelson, C. A. & Luciana, M. (Eds.), Handbook of developmental cognitive neuroscience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D., & Frye, D. (1998). Cognitive complexity and control: II. The development of executive function in childhood. Current Directions in Psychological Science , 7, 121126.Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D., Müller, U., Frye, D., Marcovitch, S., Argitis, G., Boseovski, J. J., … Sutherland, A. (2003). The development of executive function in early childhood. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 68(3, Serial No. 274), vii–151.Google Scholar