https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(11)60555-2.pdf

Inequality in early childhood: risk and protective factors for early child development

The concept of resilience has as its starting point the recognition that there is huge heterogeneity in people's responses to all manner of environmental adversities. Resilience is an inference based on evidence that some individuals have a better outcome than others who have experienced a comparable level of adversity; moreover, the negative experience may have either a sensitizing effect or a strengthening "steeling" effect in relation to the response to later stress or adversity. After noting the crucial importance of first testing for the environmental mediation of risk through "natural experiments," findings are reviewed on "steeling effects" in animal models and humans. Gene-environment interaction findings are considered, and it is noted that there is some evidence that the genetic influences concerns responsivity to all environments and not just bad ones. Life course effects are reviewed in relation to evidence on turning point effects associated with experiences that increase opportunities and enhance coping. Attention is drawn to both research implications and substantive findings as features that foster resilience.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954579412000028

Resilience as a dynamic concept.

Autism spectrum disorder is a construct used to describe individuals with a specific combination of impairments in social communication and repetitive behaviours, highly restricted interests and/or sensory behaviours beginning early in life. The worldwide prevalence of autism is just under 1%, but estimates are higher in high-income countries. Although gross brain pathology is not characteristic of autism, subtle anatomical and functional differences have been observed in post-mortem, neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies. Initially, it was hoped that accurate measurement of behavioural phenotypes would lead to specific genetic subtypes, but genetic findings have mainly applied to heterogeneous groups that are not specific to autism. Psychosocial interventions in children can improve specific behaviours, such as joint attention, language and social engagement, that may affect further development and could reduce symptom severity. However, further research is necessary to identify the long-term needs of people with autism, and treatments and the mechanisms behind them that could result in improved independence and quality of life over time. Families are often the major source of support for people with autism throughout much of life and need to be considered, along with the perspectives of autistic individuals, in both research and practice.

/pdf/autism-spectrum-disorder-55g4bscnxz.pdf

Autism spectrum disorder

Background: It is a universal finding that there is huge heterogeneity in people’s responses to all kinds of stress and adversity. Resilience is an interactive phenomenon that is inferred from findings indicating that some individuals have a relatively good outcome despite having experienced serious adversities.

Methods:  Resilience can only be inferred if there has been testing of environmental mediation of risks and quantification of the degree of risk. The use of ‘natural experiments’ to test environmental mediation is briefly discussed. The literature is then reviewed on features associated with resilience in terms of (a) those that are neutral or risky in the absence of the risk experience (such as adoption); (b) brief exposure to risks and inoculation effects; (c) mental features (such as planning, self-regulation or a sense of personal agency); (d) features that foster those mental features; (e) turning point effects; (f) gene-environment interactions; (g) social relationships and promotive effects; and (h) the biology of resilience.

Results:  Clinical implications are considered with respect to (a) conceptual implications; (b) prevention; and (c) treatment.

Conclusion:  Resilience findings do not translate into a clear programme of prevention and treatment, but they do provide numerous leads that focus on the dynamic view of what may be involved in overcoming seriously adverse experiences.

Annual Research Review: Resilience--Clinical Implications.

https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/bitstream/uniba/461/1/AndersHomeseseA2.pdf

Home and preschool learning environments and their relations to the development of early numeracy skills

This monograph is concerned with the mid adolescent follow-up of a group of adoptees from Romania and from within the United Kingdom who were first assessed at the age of 4 years (or 6 years in the case of the oldest children). After describing the structure of this monograph, this chapter provides the background as it applied at the time that the study began, and then goes on to outline the overall research strategy and the measures relevant for the first assessment at age 4 years. The research literature with respect to other studies is considered here only in relation to the state of knowledge at the time our research began. Research findings since then are discussed separately in later chapters according to the topics considered in each individual chapter. This chapter then goes on to summarize, briefly, some of the key findings from the follow-ups undertaken up to the age of 11 years. The details of the measures, as relevant for the followup up to age 15 years, are provided in the second chapter.

I. investigating the impact of early institutional deprivation on development: background and research strategy of the english and romanian adoptees (era) study

It has come to be generally accepted that the psychopathological effects of psychosocial stress and adversity are diagnostically nonspecific (McMahon, Grant, Compas, Thurm, & Ey, 2003). There is a good deal of supporting evidence in support of this assumption, even though it may be that the nonspecificity has been exaggerated through a failure to take account of comorbidity (Shanahan, Copeland, Costello, & Angold, 2008). Thus, although ‘‘natural experiments’’ have confirmed the reality of environmental mediation of causation, in the case of sexual abuse in childhood (Kendler, Kuhn, & Prescott, 2004), its risk effects span a range of diagnoses. In other words, knowing that someone has experienced sexual abuse does not enable a confident prediction at an individual level as to what psychopathology will be evident (see Glaser, 2008). Conversely, there is not a pattern of psychopathology that tells one that the disorder must have been due to sexual abuse. Much the same applies to other acute and chronic psychosocial stresses and adversities, such as physical abuse, exposure to family violence, exposure to severe family discord and conflict, and the experience of multiple negative life events carrying long-term threat. Accordingly, at the time that we started the study, our expectation, like those of other researchers, was that we would find the same with respect to institutional deprivation. It came very much as a surprise, therefore, that we found at age 6 no evident increase in the common varieties of emotional and behavioral problems that constitute the majority of mental health clinic referrals (Kreppner et al., 2007; Rutter et al., 1999). In sharp contrast, what we did find were four patterns that were strongly associated with institutional deprivation and that rarely occurred in other children within our sample. These comprised quasi-autism (Q-A; Rutter et al., 1999; Rutter, Kreppner et al., 2007), disinhibited attachment (DA; O’Connor, Bredenkamp, Rutter, MONOGRAPHS OF THE SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT

III. Deprivation-specific psychological patterns.

Chapter III (Kumsta et al.) presented findings on the designation of deprivation-specific psychological patterns (DSPs) and on the testing of the internal and external validity of the concept of a DSP. The starting point was the meeting of particular criteria at age 6 and persistence of impairment to age 11. In this chapter, we turn to our findings on the developmental course of DSPs. Because the postulate was that the DSP resulted from profound institutional deprivation, it is necessary to begin with findings on what the children were like at the time of leaving institutional care. The evidence is relevant to scientific question about continuities and discontinuities in individual differences in the children’s functioning in the institutions and the manifestation of DSPs that persisted at least up to age 11Fsome 71 years after adoption. It is also relevant to the practical question of whether prospective adoptive parents could identify children in the institutions who were likely, or unlikely, to show persisting DSPs postadoption. We next turn to the features of the four postulated DSPs between the ages of 6 and 11 yearsFstarting with quasi-autism (Q-A). The features as shown at age 6 were described in chapter III (Kumsta et al.) and will not, therefore, be repeated here. The emphasis is on both continuities and discontinuities (including change of pattern) over this age period. Chapter III (Kumsta et al.) indicated the criteria used for persistence to age 11, and here, by contrast, we focus on a qualitative description of what the children were like. In the case of the children with Q-A, we were able to use the detailed clinical assessments undertaken by M. R. together with the systematic ADOS and ADI-R findings. In addition, we have detailed findings on mental health and special educational service usage. In order to focus on MONOGRAPHS OF THE SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT

IV. Developmental course of deprivation-specific psychological patterns: early manifestations, persistence to age 15, and clinical features.

/pdf/vi-institutional-deprivation-specific-cognitive-functions-1h10o5z14q.pdf

Vi. institutional deprivation, specific cognitive functions, and scholastic achievement: english and romanian adoptee (era) study findings

/pdf/viii-postadoption-environmental-features-3zrvrofga3.pdf

Jennifer Castle

Papers

I. investigating the impact of early institutional deprivation on development: background and research strategy of the english and romanian adoptees (era) study

III. Deprivation-specific psychological patterns.

IV. Developmental course of deprivation-specific psychological patterns: early manifestations, persistence to age 15, and clinical features.

Vi. institutional deprivation, specific cognitive functions, and scholastic achievement: english and romanian adoptee (era) study findings

VIII. Postadoption environmental features.