A Preliminary, Randomized-Controlled Trial of Mindfulness and Game-Based Executive Function Trainings to Promote Self-Regulation in Internationally-Adopted Children.

Although many children adopted internationally show remarkable recovery once placed in families, as a group they continue to exhibit persisting developmental deficits and delays in self-regulation. The current study uses a stratified, randomized, controlled trial to evaluate the effects of mindfulness-based and executive function trainings (EFTs) on internationally adopted (IA) children's self-regulation, including effortful/inhibitory control, attention, delay of gratification, and emotion-regulation. IA children ages 6-10 years were randomized into mindfulness training (MT), EFT, or no intervention (NI) groups. The MT and EFT groups attended 12 one-hour group sessions. Ninety-six children (MT, n = 33; EFT, n = 32; NI, n = 31) completed the study and were tested on computerized and non-computerized measures of self-regulation. Compared with the NI group, the MT group improved delay of gratification, and the EFT group improved inhibitory control and selective attention. There was no effect of either intervention on emotion regulation. MTs and EFTs show promise for improving self-regulation in IA children.

Differential DNA methylation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in adolescents exposed to significant early but not later childhood adversity.

Internationally adopted adolescents who are adopted as young children from conditions of poverty and deprivation have poorer physical and mental health outcomes than do adolescents conceived, born, and raised in the United States by families similar to those who adopt internationally. Using a sample of Russian and Eastern European adoptees to control for Caucasian race and US birth, and nonadopted offspring of well-educated and well-resourced parents to control for postadoption conditions, we hypothesized that the important differences in environments, conception to adoption, might be reflected in epigenetic patterns between groups, specifically in DNA methylation. Thus, we conducted an epigenome-wide association study to compare DNA methylation profiles at approximately 416,000 individual CpG loci from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 50 adopted youth and 33 nonadopted youth. Adopted youth averaged 22 months at adoption, and both groups averaged 15 years at testing; thus, roughly 80% of their lives were lived in similar circumstances. Although concurrent physical health did not differ, cell-type composition predicted using the DNA methylation data revealed a striking difference in the white blood cell-type composition of the adopted and nonadopted youth. After correcting for cell type and removing invariant probes, 30 CpG sites in 19 genes were more methylated in the adopted group. We also used an exploratory functional analysis that revealed that 223 gene ontology terms, clustered in neural and developmental categories, were significantly enriched between groups.

Early deprivation and autonomic nervous system functioning in post-institutionalized children.

The relations between early deprivation and the development of the neuroendocrine and central components of the mammalian stress response have been examined frequently. However, little is known about the impact of early deprivation on the developmental trajectories of autonomic function. Children adopted between 15-36 months from institutional care were examined during their first 16 months post-adoption (N = 60). Comparison groups included same-aged peers reared in their birth families (N = 50) and children adopted internationally from overseas foster care (N = 46). The present study examined trajectories of baseline autonomic nervous system function longitudinally following entry into adopted families. Post-institutionalized children had higher sympathetic tone, measured by pre-ejection period (PEP). Individual differences in PEP soon after adoption served as a mediator between early deprivation and parent-reported behavioral problems 2 years post-adoption. There were no group differences in parasympathetic function, indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia. All three groups showed similar trajectories of ANS function across the 16 month period.