The Development of Children Placed into Different Types of Russian Families Following an Institutional Intervention

Abstract

This study examined whether interventions in Russian Baby Homes promoting warm, sensitive, and responsive caregiver-child interactions and relationships would be associated with advantages in those children's behavior years after they transitioned to family care. Children (N = 135) who had resided for at least 3 months (M = 13.8 months) in one of three intervention institutions were subsequently placed in Russian families (relatives or non-relatives) for at least 1 year (M = 33.5 months). When children were 1.5-10.8 years of age, parents provided ratings of attachment, indiscriminate friendliness, executive functioning, social-emotional development, and behavior problems. Despite very substantial differences in the developmental status of children at departure from the three institutions, there were fewer than expected significant differences between children from the three institutions at follow-up or as a function of being placed with relatives or non-relatives. Specifically, children reared in the most improved institution displayed less indiscriminate friendliness, were less aggressive/defiant, and had less externalizing behavior. Children from all three institutions who were placed into families at older ages tended to be rated more poorly on some measures. These results suggest that previously institutionalized children adjust well to family life, but improved institutional caregiving can have some persistent benefits over several years in children transitioned to families.

Keywords: Post-institutionalized children; Russian children; catch-up growth; domestic family placements; intervention follow-up.