Winnette Petra, Bob Petr, Datta Ashley
First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.
Winnette Lab, Natama Institute, Prague, Czechia.
Front Psychiatry. 2025 Apr 17;16:1453950. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1453950. eCollection 2025.
Amounting findings on maternal separation and early disturbed caregiving suggest that this type of early experience negatively influences socioemotional development and may be associated with behavioral and mental health problems in later life. Concerning previously published studies, we have assessed if maternal separation and disrupted caregiving before adoption in infancy could be related to heightened levels of dissociative symptoms and behavioral problems in middle childhood. We involved 30 children (sample S1) who had experienced maternal separation after birth and short-term institutional or foster care prior to adoption before 16.7 months of age. Based on the parents' reports, they had not experienced any other significant adversities by the time of evaluation. These children were compared to a control group of children who have lived with their biological mothers in complete families (sample S2; = 25). Although the findings are correlational and not causal, they indicate that specific adverse experiences, maternal separation after birth, and relatively short disruptive caregiving prior to successful adoption in infancy could be associated with significantly heightened levels of dissociative symptoms and behavioral problems in school-aged children. Our data also contribute to the literature on child socioemotional development and the etiology of dissociative disorders.
关于母婴分离和早期照料受干扰的越来越多的研究结果表明，这类早期经历会对社会情感发展产生负面影响，并可能与日后生活中的行为和心理健康问题有关。关于此前发表的研究，我们评估了婴儿期被收养前的母婴分离和照料中断是否可能与童年中期解离症状和行为问题水平升高有关。我们纳入了30名儿童（样本S1），他们在出生后经历了母婴分离，并在16.7个月大之前被收养前经历了短期机构照料或寄养。根据父母的报告，在评估时他们没有经历过任何其他重大逆境。将这些儿童与在完整家庭中与亲生母亲生活在一起的对照组儿童（样本S2；n = 25）进行比较。尽管研究结果是相关性的而非因果性的，但它们表明，特定的不良经历、出生后的母婴分离以及婴儿期成功收养前相对较短时间的照料中断，可能与学龄儿童解离症状和行为问题水平显著升高有关。我们的数据也为有关儿童社会情感发展和解离障碍病因的文献做出了贡献。
