ArticleJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2020
Why does early childhood deprivation increase the risk for depression and anxiety in adulthood? A developmental cascade model.
Article in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Childhood Maltreatment and Mental Health Problems: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Quasi-Experimental Studies.The American journal of psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Psychiatric outcomes following severe deprivation in early childhood: Follow-up of a randomized controlled trial at age 16.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2020Trial
- Germany'sEuropean journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Early life stress induces sex-specific changes in cognitive and affective behavior associated with disrupted noradrenergic physiology.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Childhood post-adoption experiences and the long-term trajectories of deprivation-specific neurodevelopmental problems: a longitudinal study of the English and Romanian adoptee cohort.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Disorder at the Synapse: How the Active Inference Framework Unifies Competing Perspectives on Depression.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- What Is Distinctive About Autism Arising Following Severe Institutional Deprivation? A Direct Comparison With a Community Sample of Early Diagnosed Autistic People.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025Article
- Post-adoption experiences of discrimination moderated by sleep quality are associated with depressive symptoms in previously institutionalized youth over and above deprivation-induced depression risk.Development and psychopathology · 2024Article
- Early life stress induced sex-specific changes in behavior is paralleled by altered locus coeruleus physiology in BALB/cJ mice.Neurobiology of stress · 2024Article
- Developmental cascade models linking contextual risks, parenting, and internalizing symptoms: A 17-year longitudinal study from early childhood to emerging adulthood.Development and psychopathology · 2024Article
- Early childhood deprivation and the impact of negative life events on mental health in later life: a test of the stress sensitization hypothesis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Previously institutionalized toddlers' social and emotional competence and kindergarten adjustment: Indirect effects through executive function.Developmental psychology · 2023Article
- Article
- The adult outcome of childhood quasi-autism arising following extreme institutional deprivation.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2023Article
- Association between cumulative psychosocial adversity in the family and ADHD and autism: a family-based cohort study.Translational psychiatry · 2023Article
- Association of childhood threat and deprivation with depressive symptoms and the moderating role of current economic status among middle-aged and older adults in China.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2023Article
- Emotion regulation as a predictor of patterns of change in behavior problems in previously institutionalized youth.Development and psychopathology · 2023Article
- Psychological wellbeing in adult adoptees: current age and developmental tasks.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- The Bucharest Early Intervention Project: Adolescent mental health and adaptation following early deprivation.Child development perspectives · 2022Article
- Adoption and trauma: Risks, recovery, and the lived experience of adoption.Child abuse & neglect · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundUsing data from the English & Romanian Adoptees (ERA) study, we recently reported that early time-limited exposure to severe institutional deprivation is associated with early-onset and persistent neurodevelopmental problems and later-onset emotional problems. Here, we examine possible reasons for the late emergence of emotional problems in this cohort. Our main focus is on testing a developmental cascade mediated via the functional impact of early-appearing neurodevelopmental problems on late adolescent functioning. We also explore a second putative pathway via sensitization to stress.
methodsThe ERA study includes 165 Romanian individuals who spent their early lives in grossly depriving institutions and were subsequently adopted into UK families, along with 52 UK adoptees with no history of deprivation. Age six years symptoms of neurodevelopmental problems and age 15 anxiety/depression symptoms were assessed via parental reports. Young adult symptoms of depression and anxiety were assessed by both parent and self-reports; young adults also completed measures of stress reactivity, exposure to adverse life events, and functioning in work and interpersonal relationships.
resultsThe path between early institutional deprivation and adult emotional problems was mediated via the impact of early neurodevelopmental problems on unemployment and poor friendship functioning during the transition to adulthood. The findings with regard to early deprivation, later life stress reactivity, and emotional problems were inconclusive.
conclusionsOur analysis suggests that the risk for adult depression and anxiety following extreme institutional deprivation is explained through the effects of early neurodevelopmental problems on later social and vocational functioning. Future research should more fully examine the role of stress susceptibility in this model.
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