Two essential components of the care and development of infants and young children are 1) a stable, consistent, and small set of caretakers over a prolonged period of time and 2) caregivers who provide socially-responsive, developmentally-appropriate caregiving behaviors. These characteristics are thought to be crucial for the development of mental health. However, despite their theoretical important, little experimental evidence is available demonstrating that these two specific characteristics play causal roles in producing these outcomes.
This project takes advantage of a highly unusual set of orphanages for children birth to 4 years of age in St. Petersburg, Russia, which 1) provide adequate care by the researchers’ standards with respect to medicine, nutrition, safety, hygiene, toys and play equipment, specialized equipment for children with disabilities, adult contact hours, and staff:child ratios, but 2) could be improved with respect to stable, consistent caregivers delivering socially-responsive, developmentally-appropriate caregiving behaviors.
This project has implemented two interventions in an orphanage for children birth to 4 years in St. Petersburg, Russia: 1) Training to promote more warm, sensitive and responsive caregiving, and 2) structural changes to promote positive relationships between children and caregivers, predominantly to increase the consistency of fewer caregivers in the lives of the children. Caregivers are assessed for job satisfaction, attitudes toward children, anxiety, and depression. Children are assessed for physical, mental, language, and social-emotional development. Lastly, families of children adopted are comprehensively assessed for adjustment, social-emotional development, problem behavior, and mental health.
Preliminary data show that 1) the interventions were successfully implemented and caregivers changed their behaviors on the wards, 2) caregivers have adjusted to the interventions and are in better psychological condition than before the interventions, 3) children’s mental, social-emotional, and physical development has improved, and 4) even the relatively mild pre-intervention social-emotional conditions of these otherwise adequate Baby Homes are sufficient to produce a greater than expected number of children adopted after 12 months of age to the USA who have persistent multiple extreme behaviors.
