Institutional rearing of young children has been demonstrated to increase risk for a broad range of psychiatric disorders and other impairments. This has led many countries to consider or to invest in foster care. However, no study to date has explored potential differences in psychiatric symptoms in children placed in different types of foster care. The authors assessed internalizing disorders, externalizing disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 54-month-old children living with foster families. They compared one group of children living in high-quality foster families who had benefited from specialized training and support to another group of children placed with government-sponsored foster care in Bucharest, Romania. After controlling for duration of time spent in foster care, there was a main group effect in predicting ADHD (p = .021) and a marginal group × gender interaction effect. No effects were noted for signs of externalizing disorders. There was, however, a significant group × gender interaction effect of signs of internalizing disorders (p = .007), with the girls in high-quality foster care having less severe symptomatology than did their counterparts in the government-sponsored group. Governments must invest in quality interventions for their most vulnerable citizens to prevent serious and potentially lasting problems.
Infant Mental Health Journal Volume 35, Issue 2, March/April 2014, Pages 87–191