Can inattention/overactivity be an institutional deprivation syndrome?
Parents and teachers rated attention, overactivity, conduct and emotional difficulties in 165 Romanian-born adoptees and 52 UK domestic adoptees. Longer deprivation was associated with attention and overactivity problems at age six, with persistence from age four in the earlier-assessed subgroup. The association was not explained by the measured birth-weight, nutritional or cognitive differences and overlapped with attachment difficulties.
Limitations: Ratings came from adults; the study did not ask children to describe their own attention difficulties. The authors’ deprivation-related interpretation is specific to this cohort. This cohort experienced extreme early institutional deprivation and does not represent adoptees generally. Participants overlap with other ERA publications. Evidence-provider note: adoptive parents supplied some or all questionnaire/interview assessments of the adoptee’s outcomes. These proxy reports are not the adoptee’s own account; other evidence sources, where present, are described in the summary.
- Research type
- Longitudinal comparative cohort study
- Source reviewed
- Abstract
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Age group
- Children
Study context and review
Age group as recorded: Children
Adoption context: Intercountry adoption from Romanian institutions; UK domestic-adoption comparison
Programme: English and Romanian Adoptees Study
Institutional context: No relationship identified in the material checked
No adoption-sector organisational relationship identified in the bibliographic material screened. This is not confirmation of institutional independence; affiliations, funding and conflicts were not comprehensively audited.
Bibliographic screening. Bibliographic relationships are not a bias or safety rating.
Topics: ADHD, behaviour, institutional care, institutional deprivation, intercountry adoption, longitudinal, neurodivergence, UK research
Review scope: Source checked: Abstract. This does not imply full-text or independent human verification.
Country as recorded: United Kingdom; Romania (origin)
- Funding
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Commissioner
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Funder role
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Declared conflicts
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Recruitment
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Adoptee involvement
- Not yet checked for this entry
Entry: study_3f5b3391c3d424db