ADHD Symptomatology, Executive Function and Cognitive Performance Differences between Family Foster Care and Control Group in ADHD-Diagnosed Children

Children in foster care have a high prevalence of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis, together with other difficulties in inattentive/hyperactive behaviors, executive and cognitive processes. Early exposure to adversity is a risk factor for developing ADHD via neurodevelopmental pathways. The goal of this research is (a) to study the cognitive and executive performance and inattentive/hyperactive behavior of ADHD-diagnosed children living in foster families in Spain, and (b) to analyze the role of placement variables in their performance. The sample was composed of 102 ADHD-diagnosed children aged 6- to 12-years-old, divided into two groups: 59 children living with non-relative foster families and 43 children not involved with protection services. Children’s executive function–inhibition, working memory, flexibility, attention, intellectual capacity, verbal comprehension, perceptive reasoning, working memory and processing speed were assessed using objective testing measures. At the same time, parents and teachers reported on children’s inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive behaviors. Children in foster care obtained lower scores in the general ability index than the control group after controlling the age at assessment. However, no differences were found in executive processes. Regarding placement factors, children with shorter exposure to adversities in their birth families and more time in foster care showed better executive performance. Professionals should consider the placement history of children in foster care and its influence on their symptomatology and cognitive capacities.

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Taking Care Triple P for Foster Parents With Young Children in Foster Care: Results of a 1-Year Randomized Trial

Journal of Interpersonal Violence ◽

10.1177/0886260520909196 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 088626052090919

Author(s):

Ann-Katrin Job ◽

Daniela Ehrenberg ◽

Peter Hilpert ◽

Vanessa Reindl ◽

Arnold Lohaus ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Foster Care ◽

Young Children ◽

Foster Parents ◽

Challenging Behaviors ◽

Control Group ◽

Triple P ◽

Group Training ◽

Foster Families ◽

Parent Group ◽

Children In Foster Care

Young children with a history of maltreatment or neglect in foster families often confront their caregivers with particularly challenging behaviors. This may lead to more parenting stress, an increased risk for the child in foster care to experience further maltreatment, and placement disruptions. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to investigate the efficacy of a parent group training tailored to the special needs of foster families. We hypothesized significant short- and long-term improvements regarding foster parents’ parenting competencies, child mental health problems, and related outcomes. Eighty-one families with 87 children in foster care aged 2 to 7 years participated in the trial. For the intervention study, 44 randomly selected families (54%) were offered to participate in the parent group training. Intervention and control group families were reassessed three times over a period of 1 year. Contrary to our expectations, we found no advantages of the intervention group compared with the usual care control group on any outcome measure. Instead, we found some significant changes in both groups across time. Placement into foster care is associated with some favorable outcomes for children in foster care. Additional support for foster families beyond the services delivered in the youth welfare system to foster parents was not associated with more favorable outcomes. The present intervention is likely associated with a low risk of harm but also with a high likelihood of a lack of significant benefits for foster parents and their young children going beyond feeling satisfied about the delivered services. Participating foster families showed favorable baseline results on parenting measures which may have impeded intervention effects to unfold on these proximal variables.

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Foster Parents’ Parenting and the Social-Emotional Development and Adaptive Functioning of Children in Foster Care: A PRISMA-Guided Literature Review and Meta-Analysis

Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review ◽

10.1007/s10567-020-00336-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sabrina Chodura ◽

Arnold Lohaus ◽

Tabea Symanzik ◽

Nina Heinrichs ◽

Kerstin Konrad

Keyword(s):

Foster Care ◽

Child Development ◽

Literature Review ◽

Foster Parents ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Developmental Outcomes ◽

Parenting Behavior ◽

Foster Families ◽

Children In Foster Care ◽

Increased Risk

AbstractChildren in foster care (CFC) are at increased risk for negative developmental outcomes. Given the potential influence of foster parents’ parenting on the development of CFC, this literature review and meta-analysis provide an initial overview of how parenting factors in foster families relate to CFC’s developmental outcomes. We aimed to explore (1) whether foster parents’ parenting conceptualizations are related differently to various CFC developmental outcome variables and (2) how characteristics of foster parents and CFC moderate these associations. Following the recommendations of the PRISMA statement, we searched four databases in 2017 (with an update in May 2020). Forty-three primary studies were coded manually. The interrater agreement was 92.1%. Parenting variables were specified as parenting behavior, style, and goals and were distinguished further into functional and dysfunctional parenting. CFC development was divided into adaptive (including cognitive) development and maladaptive development. Meta-analyses could be performed for foster parenting behavior and developmental outcomes, as well as for functional parenting goals and maladaptive socioemotional outcomes in CFC. Associations between functional parenting behavior and adaptive child development were positive and negative for maladaptive child development, respectively. For dysfunctional, parenting effects were in the opposite direction. All effects were small to moderate. Similar results were found descriptively in the associations of parenting style and child developmental outcomes. We found similar effect sizes and directions of the associations between parenting behavior in foster families and the child’s developmental outcomes as those previously reported for biological families. These findings provide strong support for the significant role of parenting in foster families regarding children’s development in foster care.

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Effects of an attachment-based intervention on the cortisol production of infants and toddlers in foster care

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579408000400 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 845-859 ◽

Cited By ~ 236

Author(s):

Mary Dozier ◽

Elizabeth Peloso ◽

Erin Lewis ◽

Jean-Philippe Laurenceau ◽

Seymour Levine

Keyword(s):

Foster Care ◽

Developmental Education ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Comparison Group ◽

Control Group ◽

Strange Situation ◽

Initial Values ◽

Children In Foster Care ◽

Control Intervention ◽

And Behavior

AbstractStudies with nonhuman primates and rodents, as well as with human children, have suggested that early separations from caregivers are often associated with changes in the functioning of the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. On the basis of these findings, we designed a relational intervention that was intended to normalize HPA functioning among children in foster care. This paper presents findings from a randomized clinical trial that assessed the effectiveness of a relational intervention (Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up [ABC]) with regard to HPA functioning. The ABC intervention was intended to enhance children's ability to regulate physiology and behavior. The control intervention (Developmental Education for Families) was intended to enhance children's cognitive skills. A comparison group of children who had never been in foster care was also included. Children's cortisol production was assessed upon arrival at the lab, and 15 and 30 min following the Strange Situation. Random effects analyses of variance were performed to assess differences in initial values and change between children in the two intervention groups. Children in the ABC intervention and comparison group children showed lower initial values of cortisol than children in the treatment control group, considering arrival at lab as initial values (p < .05). Groups did not differ significantly in change over time. These results suggest that the ABC intervention is effective in helping children regulate biology in ways more characteristic of children who have not experienced early adversity.

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Developmental trends of hot and cool executive function in school-aged children with and without autism spectrum disorder: Links with theory of mind

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579418000081 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (02) ◽

pp. 541-556 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Evangelia-Chrysanthi Kouklari ◽

Stella Tsermentseli ◽

Claire P. Monks

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Working Memory ◽

Executive Function ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Longitudinal Design ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Spectrum Disorder ◽

Control Group ◽

Children With Asd ◽

The Impact

AbstractThe development of executive function (EF) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been investigated using only “cool”-cognitive EF tasks while there is limited knowledge regarding the development of “hot”-affective EF. Although cool EF development and its links to theory of mind (ToM) have been widely examined, understanding of the influence of hot EF to ToM mechanisms is minimal. The present study introduced a longitudinal design to examine the developmental changes in cool and hot EF of children with ASD (n = 45) and matched (to age and IQ) controls (n = 37) as well as the impact of EF on ToM development over a school year. For children with ASD, although selective cool (working memory and inhibition) and hot (affective decision making) EF domains presented age-related improvements, they never reached the performance level of the control group. Early cool working memory predicted later ToM in both groups but early hot delay discounting predicted later ToM only in the ASD group. No evidence was found for the reverse pattern (early ToM predicting later EF). These findings suggest that improvements in some EF aspects are evident in school age in ASD and highlight the crucial role that both cool and hot EF play in ToM development.

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Working memory, executive function and impulsivity in Internet-addictive disorders: a comparison with pathological gambling

Acta Neuropsychiatrica ◽

10.1017/neu.2015.54 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

pp. 92-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Zhenhe Zhou ◽

Hongliang Zhou ◽

Hongmei Zhu

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Executive Function ◽

Pathological Gambling ◽

False Alarm ◽

False Alarm Rate ◽

Digit Span ◽

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ◽

Control Group ◽

Addictive Disorders ◽

Hit Rate

ObjectiveThe purpose of the present study was to test whether individuals with Internet addiction disorder (IAD) presented analogous characteristics of working memory, executive function and impulsivity compared with pathological gambling (PG) patients.MethodsThe subjects included 23 individuals with IAD, 23 PG patients and 23 controls. All of the participants were measured with the digit span task, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, go/no-go task and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11) under the same experimental conditions.ResultsThe results of this study showed that the false alarm rate, total response errors, perseverative errors, failure to maintain set and BIS-11 scores of both the IAD and PG groups were significantly higher than that of the control group. In addition, the forward scores and backwards scores, percentage of conceptual level responses, number of categories completed and hit rate of the IAD and PG groups were significantly lower than that of the control group. Furthermore, the false alarm rate and BIS-11 scores of the IAD group were significantly higher than those of PG patients, and the hit rate was significantly lower than that of the PG patients.ConclusionsIndividuals with IAD and PG patients present deficiencies in working memory, executive dysfunction and impulsivity, and individuals with IAD are more impulsive than PG patients.

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Effects of Cognitive and Aerobic training on Working Memory and Executive Function in Aging, a Pseudo-Randomized Trial: Pilot Study

Journal Of Aging Research And Healthcare ◽

10.14302/issn.2474-7785.jarh-18-2458 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 46-70

Author(s):

Clemence Joubert ◽

Hanna Chainay

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Executive Function ◽

Cognitive Training ◽

Physical Training ◽

Passive Control ◽

Aerobic Training ◽

The Elderly ◽

Control Group ◽

Short Term

Introduction Cognitive and physical (especially aerobic) training have been reported to enhance cognition in the elderly. The goal of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two types of training, namely combined cognitive-and-physical training and cognitive training alone, for cognition and in particular for executive function and working memory. Material and Method Healthy older adults (aged 65–86 years) were included in cognitive-and-physical - CAP (n=16) - or cognitive - COG (n=16) - training groups or in a passive control group – CONT (n=16). The training took place in 60-minute sessions conducted twice a week for 8 weeks. Cognitive functions were assessed before and immediately after the interventions and at a 1-month follow-up. Results In the short-term, the CAP and COG groups showed a transfer on updating, unlike the CONT group. In the long-term, although the gains achieved by both CAP and COG persisted, the benefit observed in the COG group was greater than that in the CAP group. Conclusion Our data suggest that there may be a complementarity between cognitive and physical training effects at the level of short-term transfer, given that physical training was able to boost cognitive training. Moreover, regarding transfer, physical training may help improve performance on untrained tasks. However, as far as the long-term persistence of the benefits of training is concerned, the results tend to indicate the superiority of cognitive training.

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L’affidamento familiare: le strategie educative elaborate dagli affidatari

ECPS - Educational Cultural and Psychological Studies ◽

10.7358/ecps-2021-024-rico ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Paola Ricchiardi ◽

Cristina Coggi

Keyword(s):

Foster Care ◽

Care Transitions ◽

National Sample ◽

Foster Families ◽

Multiple Risk Factors ◽

Families Of Origin ◽

Life Trajectories ◽

Children In Foster Care ◽

Suitable Space ◽

Educational Condition

Foster care is a condition of welcoming children with families in serious difficulty, legally regulated, aimed at guaranteeing to minors a suitable space for growth, and to families of origin the possibility of overcoming the problems so as to consent the return of the children. It is a challenging educational condition, to be deepened with research. The complexity of the backgrounds of origin and the co-presence of multiple risk factors in fact generate in children and young people in foster care, important difficulties in development, which foster families have to cope with, also with the support of specialists, services and associations. However, the skills that caregivers come to build over the years are valuable, deserving of pedagogical insights, so that good practices of positive parenting can be valued and shared. In this paper we will report the results of a survey, carried out with a national sample of 323 foster families. The study makes it possible to investigate the reasons for the custody prevision, the relationships with families of origin, the difficult life trajectories of the children in foster care (transitions, placements, discontinuities, years of foster care, continuation of relationships after foster care). In this way it is possible to identify the needs highlighted by the minors, the relevant problems that emerge and the promising strategies adopted by the foster families.

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