Criminals allegedly use effective novelty to intentionally exploit and harm others (creative fraud, theft, and murder). However, empirical evidence that criminals possess higher malevolent creativity than individuals without criminal backgrounds is lacking. We compared a male sample of prisoners in a maximum-security penitentiary (n = 140), police…

The number of young people around the world, sanctioned with an educational measure depriving them of their liberty is increasing, which is also found in the statistics of educational centers in Romania. Custodial measures are those which punish juvenile offenders by depriving them of their liberty after they have been convicted of an offense. By…

An individual's neurodevelopmental and cognitive sequelae to negative early experiences may, in part, be explained by genetic susceptibility. We examined whether extreme differences in the early caregiving environment, defined as exposure to severe psychosocial deprivation associated with institutional care compared to normative rearing,…

Young children removed from institutions and placed into foster care or adoptive homes have been shown to experience significant gains in IQ relative to children who remain in institutions. Less is known about the long-term impact of severe early deprivation on development in late childhood. Data are presented from a follow-up of children at 12…

Background: A large number of children are currently living in Alternative Care. The relationship they establish with their temporary caregivers can play a significant role in their development. However, little has been published regarding attachment with temporary Caregivers. Objective: The aim of this review is to analyse the existing published…

Neuroscientists have long believed that there are sensitive periods in development during which the effects of experience play a critical role. And developmental psychologists have argued for the importance of early experience in the first years of life as being critical for brain and behavioral development. Most of the neuroscience research…

We examined behavior problems in 80 adolescents (39 male; mean age = 15.74 years) adopted in early childhood by Canadians from globally depriving Romanian institutions. Overall, rates of clinically significant behavior problems were comparable to rates found in younger postinstitutionalized adopted children. The association between duration of…

Background: Children reared in institutions experience elevated rates of psychiatric disorders. Inability to form a secure attachment relationship to a primary caregiver is posited to be a central mechanism in this association. We determined whether the ameliorative effect of a foster care (FC) intervention on internalizing disorders in previously…

Severe deprivation in the first few years of life is associated with multiple difficulties in cognition and behavior. However, the brain basis for these difficulties is poorly understood. Structural and functional neuroimaging studies have implicated limbic system structures as dysfunctional, and one functional imaging study in a heterogeneous…

Throughout this monograph, there has been frequent reference to levels of risk, inference of causation, testing for mediating variables, and the need to consider possible moderating influences. In this chapter, the authors review what is meant by these concepts, and then seek to pull together the findings from the English and Romanian Adoptee…

Background: We examined the effects of a foster care intervention on attention and emotion expression in socially deprived children in Romanian institutions. Methods: Institutionalized children were randomized to enter foster care or to remain under institutional care. Subsequently, the institutionalized and foster care groups, along with a…

The relationship between cognitive functioning and play behaviors of children residing in an orphanage was examined. Twenty-six young children (15 boys) between 10 and 38 months of age participated. More developmentally competent play behaviors were highly related to better performance on cognitive functioning as measured by the Bayley Scales of…

The current study examined the effects of institutionalization on the discrimination of facial expressions of emotion in three groups of 42-month-old children. One group consisted of children abandoned at birth who were randomly assigned to Care-as-Usual (institutional care) following a baseline assessment. Another group consisted of children…

There is an abundance of evidence showing relatively strong associations between family characteristics and a child's psychological functioning--both within the normal range and, also, with reference to psychopathology. That has sometimes led to the assumption that equally strong associations should be found within adoptive families. Nevertheless,…

Whereas metaanalyses of cross-sectional adoption studies have indicated that there is an impact of early deprivation on adoptee's cognitive ability, these effects generally diminish markedly after upbringing in adoptive homes. Outcomes in terms of scholastic attainment were not quite so positive in a cross-sectional metaanalysis, but the Swedish…