Executive function (EF) abilities are increasingly recognized as an important protective factor for children experiencing adversity, promoting better stress and emotion regulation as well as social and academic adjustment. We provide evidence that early life adversity is associated with significant reductions in EF performance on a developmentally sensitive battery of laboratory EF tasks that measured cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control. Animal models also suggest that early adversity has a negative impact on the development of prefrontal cortex-based cognitive functions. In this study, we report EF performance 1 y after adoption in 2.5-to 4-y-old children who had experienced institutional care in orphanages overseas compared with a group of age-matched nonadopted children. To our knowledge, this is the youngest age and the soonest after adoption that reduced EF performance has been shown using laboratory measures in this population. EF reductions in performance were significant above and beyond differences in intelligence quotient. Within the adopted sample, current EF was associated with measures of early deprivation after controlling for intelligence quotient, with less time spent in the birth family before placement in an institution and lower quality of physical/social care in institutions predicting poorer performance on the EF battery.I t has been argued that early experiences have an impact on neurobehavioral development, for good or ill, and thus influence lifelong health and disease (1). The search for protective processes in the individual that may reduce the impact of early adversity has begun to identify executive functions (EFs) as one candidate domain for intervention (2). EFs are a set of higher order cognitive processes that allow individuals to engage in planning and conscious, goal-directed problem solving (3). In children, EF is related to emotion regulation (4), conscience and moral development (5, 6), and math and literacy ability in kindergarten (7), and it is also predictive of later social and academic competence (8, 9). It is believed that EF may play an especially important role in adverse circumstances because of its role in balancing emotional arousal and cognitive processing (10). Thus, understanding the development of EF in children who experience early adversity may provide avenues for promoting their resilience.Unfortunately, this factor that could help buffer children living in adverse rearing environments has also been shown to be impaired in these children. For instance, there is accumulating evidence that psychosocial deprivation in the form of being raised in an institution is associated with reduced performance in a variety of EF domains assessed years after adoption into an enriched family environment (11-15). Studies of children experiencing early adversity cannot definitively attribute reduced EF performance to their early experiences because of their frequent coexposure to multiple other prenatal and postnatal risk factors that stunt physical g...

This multimethod study of 101 mothers, fathers, and children elucidates poorly understood role of children’s attachment security as moderating a common maladaptive trajectory: from parental power assertion, to child resentful opposition, to child antisocial conduct. Children’s security was assessed at 15 months, parents’ power assertion observed at 25 and 38 months, children’s resentful opposition to parents observed at 52 months, and antisocial conduct rated by parents at 67 months. Moderated mediation analyses indicated that in insecure dyads, parental power assertion predicted children’s resentful opposition, which then predicted antisocial conduct. This mechanism was absent in secure dyads. Early insecurity acts as a catalyst for a dyad embarking on mutually adversarial path toward antisocial outcomes, whereas early security defuses this maladaptive trajectory.

Background Early neglect is associated with increased risk of internalizing disorders in humans and with increased fear behavior in animals. When children are adopted out of orphanages in which they experienced institutional neglect, anxiety and depressive disorders often are not seen until adolescence. What has not been examined is whether even young children adopted from institutional care exhibit heightened fear or behavioral inhibition. Method Children adopted between 15 and 35 months from institutional care were examined twice during their first year post-adoption and compared to children of the same age reared in their birth families. A modified version of the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery for Preschoolers was used with the children being exposed to two mechanical toys designed to be highly arousing and fear-eliciting. Because children in institutions tend to exhibit low levels of positive affect, the children were also examined during exposure to two positive stimuli. Sessions were videotaped and coded by observers blind to the study purpose. Results Post-institutionalized children froze more in fear vignettes and were less positive in both fear and positive vignettes than non-adopted children. Group differences did not diminish significantly from the first session to the next, 6 months later. Conclusions Children exposed to early institutional neglect exhibit emotional biases that are consistent with their previously demonstrated risk for the development of internalizing disorders.

Early life stress has been associated with a diverse number of physical and mental health conditions. While many mechanisms are likely in play, most models acknowledge the role of stress physiology. Stress physiology likely plays a role both in producing and maintaining these effects. A large body of research documents how early experiences may shape the regulation of stress‐response systems. This chapter explores the relationship between stress physiology and neurobehavioral development, as well as its implications for wellbeing in childhood.

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