Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
School of Graduate Psychology, Pacific University Oregon, Forest Grove, OR, USA.
Infancy. 2020 Jan-Feb;25(1):84-109. doi: 10.1111/infa.12319. Epub 2019 Dec 23.
Infants adopted domestically from foster care often present with prenatal substance exposure and risky birth outcomes such as prematurity and low birth weight. Because few longitudinal studies of foster-adoptive infants exist, it is unclear how these preplacement risk factors influence development over time. The present study examined associations between perinatal risk factors and developmental outcomes among an ethnically/racially-diverse sample of 97 infants in foster-care (56% boys) placed into adoptive homes at ages 0-19 months. Relative to population-norms, foster-adoptive infants showed comparable cognitive but lower language and motor functioning at baseline and one-year follow-up. Age-adjusted language scores significantly improved one year following placement, consistent with a developmental "catch-up" effect. Low birth weight uniquely predicted lower language scores at baseline, but this association was no longer significant at follow-up. Prenatal substance exposure was associated with lower baseline cognitive scores, but only for infants placed after six months of age. In contrast, infants with low birth weight and placement age (>12 months) showed the most accelerated motor development. Sex differences emerged at follow-up when predicting motor and language outcomes, suggesting potential sex-specific pathways of risk. Overall, results support adoption as an early intervention that may buffer vulnerability to perinatal risk on development.
从寄养家庭收养的国内婴儿通常存在产前物质暴露和早产、低出生体重等风险出生结局。由于几乎没有关于寄养收养婴儿的纵向研究，因此尚不清楚这些产前风险因素如何随时间影响发育。本研究在一个种族多样化的 97 名寄养（56%为男孩）婴儿样本中，检查了围产期风险因素与发展结果之间的关系，这些婴儿在 0-19 个月大时被安置在收养家庭中。与人口标准相比，寄养收养婴儿在基线和一年随访时的认知能力相当，但语言和运动功能较低。与基线相比，语言得分在安置后一年显著提高，符合发展“追赶”效应。低出生体重仅在基线时预测较低的语言分数，但在随访时这一关联不再显著。产前物质暴露与较低的基线认知分数相关，但仅针对 6 个月后安置的婴儿。相比之下，出生体重低和安置年龄（>12 个月）较大的婴儿表现出更快速的运动发展。在预测运动和语言结果时出现了性别差异，表明存在潜在的性别特定风险途径。总体而言，研究结果支持采用早期干预措施，这可能缓冲围产期风险对发育的脆弱性。
