Intervening Early with Neglected Children: Key Middle Childhood Outcomes

描述（由申请人提供）：早期被忽视的经历对幼儿发育中的大脑和行为系统有有害的影响。一种对忽视父母的干预，依恋和生物行为追赶，被开发出来，以帮助父母为婴幼儿提供同步的、养育的、无恐惧的照顾。正如预期的那样，在一项随机临床试验中，该干预措施在增强幼儿依恋安全、情绪表达和生理调节方面被证明是有效的。在这种竞争性更新中，这种干预对儿童在关键的儿童中期任务中的功能的影响将被检查。首先，处于童年中期的孩子需要能够控制或调节行为，抑制主导反应。抑制控制发展的失败会导致在课堂和同伴环境中出现问题。第二，在童年中期，孩子需要有调节情绪的能力，在适当的时候控制情绪的表达，比如沮丧或失望。童年中期的第三个关键任务是发展与同伴的积极关系，这影响着各个领域的幸福感。最后，儿童需要充分调节生理机能，这一点虽然对观察者来说并不明显，但对健康和福祉有影响。因此，这些关键领域，抑制控制，情绪调节，同伴关系和生理调节，是本研究评估的结果。在这项竞争性更新中随访的儿童将包括210名儿童，其中至少140名儿童最初参加了测试依恋和生物行为追赶干预效果的随机临床试验，以及70名年龄、种族和性别匹配的低风险对照儿童。儿童将在8岁、9岁和10岁时进行评估，因为这个年龄段的调节能力通常已经巩固，对自我调节的要求也很高。抑制控制将通过行为任务和事件相关电位（测量大脑活动）来评估。情绪调节将通过要求儿童在具有挑战性的条件下调节或控制情感表达的任务来评估。同伴关系将通过教师报告、同伴模拟和归因偏见任务来评估。生理调节将通过测量激素皮质醇来评估。父母接受依恋与生物行为追赶干预的儿童和低风险对照儿童与父母接受控制干预的儿童相比，表现出更强的抑制控制、更好的情绪调节、更适当的同伴行为和更少的攻击性行为，以及更规范的皮质醇生成。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Experiences of early neglect have pernicious effects on young children's developing brain and behavioral systems. An intervention for neglecting parents, Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up, was developed to help parents provide synchronous, nurturing, and non-frightening care to infants and toddlers. As expected, this intervention proved effective in a randomized clinical trial in enhancing attachment security, emotion expression, and physiological regulation among young children. In this competitive renewal, the effects of this intervention on children's functioning in key middle childhood tasks will be examined. First, children in middle childhood need to be able to control or regulate behavior, inhibiting a dominant response. Failure to develop inhibitory control results in problems functioning in both classroom and peer settings. Second, in middle childhood, children need to have the capacity to regulate emotions, controlling the expression of emotions such as frustration or disappointment where it is appropriate to do so. A third key task for middle childhood is developing positive relationships with peers, which affects well-being across domains. Finally, children need to adequately regulate physiology, which although not apparent to observers, has effects on health and well-being. These key domains, inhibitory control, emotion regulation, peer relations, and physiological regulation, are therefore the outcomes assessed in this study. The children followed in this competitive renewal will include 210 children, at least 140 of whom were originally enrolled in the randomized clinical trial testing th efficacy of the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up Intervention, and 70 low-risk comparison children matched for age, ethnicity, and gender. Children will be assessed when they are 8, 9, and 10 years old because this is an age-range when regulatory capabilities have typically consolidated, and demands for self-regulation are high. Inhibitory control will be assessed through behavioral tasks and through event-related potentials (which measures brain activity). Emotion regulation will be assessed through tasks that require children to regulate or control the expression of affect under challenging conditions. Peer relations will be assessed through teacher report, and peer simulation and attributional bias tasks. Physiological regulation will be assessed through measurement of the hormone cortisol. Children whose parents received the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up Intervention and low-risk comparison children are expected to show stronger inhibitory control, better emotion regulation, more appropriate and less aggressive behaviors with peers, and more normative cortisol production, when compared with children whose parents participated in the control intervention.