Previous studies have found that post-institutionalized (PI) children are particularly susceptible to attention problems and perform poorly on executive functioning (EF) lab tasks. Parent ratings of EF were examined in 288 school-age and 130 preschool-age children adopted from psychosocially depriving Russian institutions that provided adequate physical resources but not one-on-one interactions with a consistent set of responsive caregivers. Results revealed a step-like association between age at adoption and EF deficits; school-age children adopted after 18 months of age had greater EF difficulties than younger-adopted children and the never-institutionalized normative sample. The onset of adolescence was associated with a greater increase in EF deficits for children adopted after 18 months than for younger-adopted children. Preschool-age children were not found to have greater EF difficulties than the normative sample. These findings suggest that prolonged early psychosocial deprivation may increase children's risk of EF deficits and that the developmental stresses of adolescence may be particularly challenging for older-adopted PI children. © 2010 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2010 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
