Trial reportProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022
Foster care leads to sustained cognitive gains following severe early deprivation.
Trial report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Electroencephalogram activity related to psychopathological and neuropsychological symptoms in institutionalised minors: a systematic review.Acta neuropsychiatrica · 2025Pooled it
- Adaptive functioning at age 18 years following severe early deprivation: Results of a randomized controlled trial.Developmental psychology · 2026Trial
- Physical and neurophysiological maturation associated with ADHD among previously institutionalized children: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Trial
- Foster Care Leads to Lower Irritability Among Adolescents with a History of Early Psychosocial Deprivation.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Trial
- Effects of foster care intervention and caregiving quality on the bidirectional development of executive functions and social skills following institutional rearing.Developmental science · 2023Trial
- Early deprivation alters structural brain development from middle childhood to adolescence.Science advances · 2022Trial
- Developmental Care in the Early Years in Pediatric Intensive Care Patients as a Strategy to Mitigate Pediatric Post-Intensive-Care Syndrome: A Narrative Review.Journal of intensive care medicine · 2026Review
- Patterns of brain-wide associations reflect socioeconomics.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Measuring early experiences: Challenges and future directions.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Review
- Toward Understanding and Halting Legacies of Trauma.Biological psychiatry · 2025Review
- Developmental mechanisms linking deprivation and threat to psychopathology and school outcomes.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Longitudinal associations between birth-to-six cortical growth and childhood neurocognitive function.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Measuring neuroplasticity in human development: the potential to inform the type and timing of mental health interventions.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Review
- Cognitive Functioning of Children in Out-of-Home Care.Journal of child & adolescent trauma · 2024Article
- Romania's Abandoned Children: The Effects of Early Profound Psychosocial Deprivation on the Course of Human Development.Current directions in psychological science · 2023Article
- The importance of a family for cognitive development: A commentary.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
This study examined longitudinal data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a randomized controlled trial of foster care as an alternative to institutional care following exposure to severe psychosocial deprivation. We report data from 135 participants assessed in early adulthood (age 18 y). We find that 16 y after randomization occurred, those who had been randomized to high-quality foster care had significantly higher IQ scores (9 points, 0.6 SD) than those randomized to care as usual. Mediation analyses provide evidence that the causal effect of the intervention on cognitive ability in early adulthood could be explained, in part, by higher-quality caregiving and attachment security. These findings indicate that early investment in family care as an alternative to institutional care leads to sustained gains in cognitive ability. Fostering caregiving relationships is a likely mechanism of the intervention. In addition, exploratory analyses indicate that stable placements throughout childhood are associated with the greatest long-term gains in cognitive ability. Whether early interventions for infants and young children lead to lasting change has significant implications for decisions to invest in programs aimed at improving children's developmental outcomes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.