Utilizing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, this paper from Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development Volume 76, Issue 4 examines critical components and current characteristics of alternative care for children in low‐resource countries.

This chapter from Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development Volume 76, Issue 4 reviews sensitive periods in human brain development based on the literature on children raised in institutions.

This chapter from Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development Volume 76, Issue 4 reviews the neurobiological literature on early institutionalization that may account for the psychological and neurological sequelae discussed in other chapters in this volume.

Children within institutional care settings experience significant global growth suppression, which is more profound in children with a higher baseline risk of growth impairment (e.g., low birth weight [LBW] infants and children exposed to alcohol in utero), according to this chapter from Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development Volume 76, Issue 4.

Attachment has been assessed in the extreme environment of orphanages, but an important issue to be addressed in this chapter of Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development Volume 76, Issue 4  is whether in addition to standard assessment procedures, such as the Strange Situation, the lack of a specific attachment in some institutionalized children should be taken into account given the limits to the development of stable relationships in institutionalized care.

This chapter from Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development Volume 76, Issue 4 first presents a review of research on the development of adopted children, focusing on meta‐analytic evidence and highlighting comparisons between adopted children with and without histories of early adversity.

This chapter of Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development Volume 76, Issue 4 is devoted to the analysis of the ill effects of early institutional experiences on resident children's development.

This monograph contains nine chapters that review and discuss the empirical literature on the development of children who have been deprived of their permanent parents

This monograph reviews literature pertaining to children without permanent parents.

This article is based on interviews with 19 child care policy experts including policy advocates, researchers, and funders.