Previously Institutionalized Toddlers' Social and Emotional Competence and Kindergarten Adjustment: Indirect Effects Through Executive Function

• Published in: Developmental psychology Vol. 59; no. 12; pp. 2175 - 2188
• Main Authors: Perry, Nicole B., Donzella, Bonny, Mliner, Shanna B., Reilly, Emily B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Psychological Association 01-12-2023
• Subjects: Adjustment; Adoption; Adoptive parents; Attention; Child; Child, Preschool; Classrooms; Cognitive Control; Conflict; Emotional Intelligence; Emotional Regulation; Emotions; Executive Function; Female; Human; Humans; Indirect effects; Inhibition; Institutionalization; Institutionalized Persons; Interpersonal Competence; Kindergarten; Kindergartens; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Parents; Preschool Children; Response inhibition; Schools; Short term memory; Social Skills; Socioemotional Functioning; Student Adjustment; Teacher Student Relationship; Teachers; Toddlers; emotion regulation; early adversity; institutional care; executive functioning; academic outcomes
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/dev0001612

Longitudinal multimethod data across three time points were examined to explore the associations between previously institutionalized toddlers' (N = 71; 59% female) socioemotional skills (Time Point 1: 18 months to 3-years-old), executive functioning (i.e., attention, working memory, inhibitory control) in the preschool years (Time Point 2: 2-4-years-old), and adjustment in kindergarten (5-6-years-old). Children were from multiple regions (35% Eastern European, 31% Southeast Asian, 25% African, and 9% Latin American), and 90% of adoptive parents were White from the Midwestern United States. Socioemotional competency at Time Point 1 was associated with fewer attention problems and greater inhibitory control at Time Point 2, which were subsequently associated with more observed social competence, greater observed classroom competence, and less teacher-reported teacher-child conflict in kindergarten. Indirect effects from socioemotional competencies in toddlerhood to kindergarten adjustment via executive functioning during the preschool period emerged.
Public Significance Statement
The current study provides an understanding of cognitive and socioemotional processes that link early institutional care with later academic and social functioning in kindergarten, and helps increase our current knowledge regarding the importance of adequate caregiving for domain-specific developmental processes while also identifying points of early intervention for previously institutionalized youth.