Intervening Early with Neglected Children: Key Middle Childhood Outcomes

描述(申请人提供)：早期忽视的经历对幼儿发育中的大脑和行为系统有有害影响。开发了一种针对忽视父母、依恋和生物行为追赶的干预措施，以帮助父母为婴儿和蹒跚学步的孩子提供同步、养育和非恐惧的护理。正如预期的那样，这项干预在一项随机临床试验中被证明在增强幼儿的依恋安全性、情感表达和生理调节方面有效。在这场竞争性的更新中，我们将考察这种干预对儿童在关键的童年中期任务中的功能的影响。首先，处于童年中期的儿童需要能够控制或调节行为，抑制显性反应。未能发展抑制性控制会导致课堂和同伴环境中的功能问题。其次，在童年中期，儿童需要有调节情绪的能力，在适当的时候控制沮丧或失望等情绪的表达。童年中期的第三个关键任务是与同龄人建立积极的关系，这会影响到各个领域的幸福感。最后，儿童需要适当地调节生理，尽管观察者认为这并不明显，但它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。在这次竞争性更新中跟踪的儿童将包括210名儿童，其中至少140名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岁时接受评估，因为这是一个监管能力通常得到巩固的年龄段，对自我监管的要求很高。抑制控制将通过行为任务和事件相关电位(衡量大脑活动)进行评估。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、同伴模拟和归因偏差任务进行评估。生理调节将通过测量激素皮质醇来评估。与父母参与控制干预的儿童相比，接受依恋和生物行为追赶干预和低风险对照的儿童被期望表现出更强的抑制性控制，更好的情绪调节，更适当和更少的同伴攻击行为，以及更规范的皮质醇产生。

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.