There is no relationship more vital than the one a child shares with their primary caregivers early in development. Yet many children worldwide are raised in settings that lack the warmth, connection, and stimulation provided by a responsive primary caregiver.
In this study, the authors used data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), a longitudinal study of institutionally-reared and family-reared children, to test how caregiving quality during infancy is associated with average EEG power over the first 3.5 years of life in alpha, beta, and theta frequency bands, and associations with later executive function (EF) at age 8 years. The sample comprised 189 children (129institutionally-reared; 60 family-reared) who contributed data on observed caregiving quality during infancy (baseline; average age of 22 months), resting EEG power at base-line, 30, and 42 months, and performance-based data on a series of EF tasks at 8 years.
Using Bayesian estimation, observed caregiving quality at baseline was marginally linked with higher average alpha and beta power, and lower theta power, from base-line to 42 months. In turn, higher average beta power and lower average theta power were marginally associated with higher EF at 8 years. In indirect effects models, higher caregiving quality at baseline was associated with higher EF at 8 years, with a marginal indirect effect through average theta power from baseline to 42 months. Variation in the quality of the early caregiving environment may be associated with later executive function, which is partially underpinned by individual differences in brain activity during early childhood
