Journal
INFANCY
Volume 25, Issue 1, Pages 84-109Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/infa.12319
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Infants adopted domestically from foster care often present with prenatal substance exposure and risky birth outcomes such as prematurity and low birthweight. Because few longitudinal studies of foster-adoptive infants exist, it is unclear how these preplacement risk factors influence development over time. The present study examined associations between perinatal risk factors and developmental outcomes among an ethnically/racially diverse sample of 97 infants in foster care (56% boys) placed into adoptive homes at ages 0-19 months. Relative to population norms, foster-adoptive infants showed comparable cognitive but lower language and motor functioning at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Age-adjusted language scores significantly improved 1 year following placement, consistent with a developmental catch-up effect. Low birthweight uniquely predicted lower language scores at baseline, but this association was no longer significant at follow-up. Prenatal substance exposure was associated with lower baseline cognitive scores, but only for infants placed after 6 months of age. In contrast, infants with low birthweight and later placement age (>12 months) showed the most accelerated motor development. Sex differences emerged at follow-up when predicting motor and language outcomes, suggesting potential sex-specific pathways of risk. Overall, results support adoption as an early intervention that may buffer vulnerability to perinatal risk on development.
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