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Positive valence bias and parent–child relationship security moderate the association between early institutional caregiving and internalizing symptoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2017

Michelle R. Vantieghem ,
Laurel Gabard-Durnam ,
Bonnie Goff ,
Jessica Flannery ,
Kathryn L. Humphreys ,
Eva H. Telzer ,
Christina Caldera ,
Jennifer Y. Louie ,
Mor Shapiro  and
Niall Bolger
...Show all authors
Michelle R. Vantieghem*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
Laurel Gabard-Durnam
Affiliation:
Columbia University
Bonnie Goff
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Jessica Flannery
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
Kathryn L. Humphreys
Affiliation:
Stanford University
Eva H. Telzer
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Christina Caldera
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Jennifer Y. Louie
Affiliation:
Kaiser Permanente, Santa Clara
Mor Shapiro
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Niall Bolger
Affiliation:
Columbia University
Nim Tottenham
Affiliation:
Columbia University
*
Address correspondence and reprint request to: Michelle R. VanTieghem, Department of Psychology, Columbia University, 406 Schermerhorn Hall, 1990 Amsterdam Avenue, MC 5501, New York, NY 10027; E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

Institutional caregiving is associated with significant deviations from species-expected caregiving, altering the normative sequence of attachment formation and placing children at risk for long-term emotional difficulties. However, little is known about factors that can promote resilience following early institutional caregiving. In the current study, we investigated how adaptations in affective processing (i.e., positive valence bias) and family-level protective factors (i.e., secure parent–child relationships) moderate risk for internalizing symptoms in previously institutionalized (PI) youth. Children and adolescents with and without a history of institutional care performed a laboratory-based affective processing task and self-reported measures of parent–child relationship security. PI youth were more likely than comparison youth to show positive valence biases when interpreting ambiguous facial expressions. Both positive valence bias and parent–child relationship security moderated the association between institutional care and parent-reported internalizing symptoms, such that greater positive valence bias and more secure parent–child relationships predicted fewer symptoms in PI youth. However, when both factors were tested concurrently, parent–child relationship security more strongly moderated the link between PI status and internalizing symptoms. These findings suggest that both individual-level adaptations in affective processing and family-level factors of secure parent–child relationships may ameliorate risk for internalizing psychopathology following early institutional caregiving.

Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 29 , Special Issue 2: Attachment in the Context of Atypical Caregiving: Harnessing Insights From a Developmental Psychopathology Perspective , May 2017 , pp. 519 - 533
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant R01MH091864 and the Dana Foundation (to N.T.). This material is also based on work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Grant DGE-11-44155 (to M.R.V.T.) and NSF Conference Grant BCS-1439258 (Co-Investigator N.T.).

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