ArticlePsychological medicine2016
Disruptions of working memory and inhibition mediate the association between exposure to institutionalization and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cognitive Outcomes of Children With Complex Trauma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses of Longitudinal Studies.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2023Pooled it
- Early deprivation alters structural brain development from middle childhood to adolescence.Science advances · 2022Trial
- Heightened sensitivity to the caregiving environment during adolescence: implications for recovery following early-life adversity.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2021Trial
- Global deficits in executive functioning are transdiagnostic mediators between severe childhood neglect and psychopathology in adolescence.Psychological medicine · 2020Trial
- Impact of early institutionalization on attention mechanisms underlying the inhibition of a planned action.Neuropsychologia · 2018Trial
- The effect of the "exposome" on developmental brain health and cognitive outcomes.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Memory processing in neurodevelopmental disorders: linking behavioral, circuits, and molecular scales.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Review
- Early life stress induced sex-specific changes in behavior is paralleled by altered locus coeruleus physiology in BALB/cJ mice.Neurobiology of stress · 2024Article
- Cognitive deficits and enhancements in youth from adverse conditions: An integrative assessment using Drift Diffusion Modeling in the ABCD study.Developmental science · 2024Article
- Mediating mechanisms of the relationship between exposure to deprivation and threat during childhood and adolescent psychopathology: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Article
- Gender differences in the associations between childhood adversity and psychopathology in the general population.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Article
- Learning and Memory Impairments With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.Physiological research · 2024Review
- Association among childhood adversity and susceptibility to interference during varying salience: two studies in healthy males.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Theta oscillatory dynamics serving cognitive control index psychosocial distress in youth.Neurobiology of stress · 2024Article
- A critical period plasticity framework for the sensorimotor-association axis of cortical neurodevelopment.Trends in neurosciences · 2023Review
- The Bucharest Early Intervention Project: Adolescent mental health and adaptation following early deprivation.Child development perspectives · 2022Article
- Classifying Young Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Based on Child, Parent, and Family Characteristics: A Cross-Validation Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Article
- The effects of early life adversity on children's mental health and cognitive functioning.Translational psychiatry · 2022Review
- Association of adversity with psychopathology in early childhood: Dimensional and cumulative approaches.Depression and anxiety · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundYoung children raised in institutions are exposed to extreme psychosocial deprivation that is associated with elevated risk for psychopathology and other adverse developmental outcomes. The prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is particularly high in previously institutionalized children, yet the mechanisms underlying this association are poorly understood. We investigated whether deficits in executive functioning (EF) explain the link between institutionalization and ADHD.
methodA sample of 136 children (aged 6-30 months) was recruited from institutions in Bucharest, Romania, and 72 never institutionalized community children matched for age and gender were recruited through general practitioners' offices. At 8 years of age, children's performance on a number of EF components (working memory, response inhibition and planning) was evaluated. Teachers completed the Health and Behavior Questionnaire, which assesses two core features of ADHD, inattention and impulsivity.
resultsChildren with history of institutionalization had higher inattention and impulsivity than community controls, and exhibited worse performance on working memory, response inhibition and planning tasks. Lower performances on working memory and response inhibition, but not planning, partially mediated the association between early institutionalization and inattention and impulsivity symptom scales at age 8 years.
conclusionsInstitutionalization was associated with decreased EF performance and increased ADHD symptoms. Deficits in working memory and response inhibition were specific mechanisms leading to ADHD in previously institutionalized children. These findings suggest that interventions that foster the development of EF might reduce risk for psychiatric problems in children exposed to early deprivation.
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