Emotion Regulation among Children in Foster Care Versus Birth Parent Care: Differential Effects of an Early Home-Visiting Intervention.

Emotion Regulation among Children in Foster Care Versus Birth Parent Care: Differential Effects of an Early Home-Visiting Intervention. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2020 May 18;: Authors: Labella MH, Lind T, Sellers T, Roben CKP, Dozier M Abstract Children involved with Child Protective Services (CPS) often show worse emotion regulation than non-involved children, with downstream effects on adaptive functioning. The current study uses two randomized control trials, one conducted with foster caregivers and one conducted with birth parents, to investigate the longitudinal effects of caregiver type (foster versus birth parent) and a home-visiting parenting intervention on emotion regulation among young children referred to CPS. Participants were 211 children referred to CPS during infancy or toddlerhood, of whom 120 remained with their birth parents and 91 were placed in foster care. Caregivers were randomly assigned to receive Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up (ABC), a 10-session intervention designed to promote nurturing, sensitive, and non-intrusive caregiving, or a control intervention. Caregiver type moderated the effects of ABC on young children's observed anger dysregulation during a frustrating task at age 2 to 3 years. Among children remaining with their birth parents, children whose caregivers received ABC showed lower anger dysregulation than children whose caregivers received the control intervention. Children placed in fost...
Source: Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: J Abnorm Child Psychol Source Type: research