How Does Early Life Adversity Impact On Social Interaction And School Engagement In Middle Childhood In Ireland?
Creators: name: O'Connor, Mary FA
Publisher: name: University of Lincoln
Year: 2024
Subjects: X320 - Academic studies in primary education

description: Current literature suggests that adversity in early childhood is thought to affect some areas of later development. When examining the impacts of early childhood deprivation, the development of intercountry adopted (ICA) children is of major interest to researchers as their circumstances provide a good example of early childhood adversity which ended abruptly (Rutter et al., 2001; O’Connor, 2003; Haugaard and Hazan 2003). From about 1990 Ireland has become a receivingcountry for many children adopted from overseas. However, very little research has been carried out in Ireland on ICA children.Many diverse areas of later development have been examined in ICA children internationally, but there appears to be a dearth of literature exploring the social interaction and school engagement of post-institutionalised (PI) ICA children in middle childhood. While many studies make broad references to pre-adoption living conditions in general, few studies appear to have any measure of individual ICA children’s living environment when exploring their later development. For this reason, the current study explored how early life adversity impacted on the social interaction and school engagement of ten post-institutionalised ICA children in middle childhood in Ireland, while also gaining some insight into the level of adversity endured by each of them pre-adoption. Having information about individual ICA children’s pre-adoption living environment may positively influence support strategies utilised by teachers and other professionals working with the children. A qualitative approach was used to explore the research question through the perceptions of ten adoptive parents of PI ICA children and each of the children’s teachers. Findings in the current study suggest that the majority of the ICA children were exposed to pre-adoption conditions in line with level two of Gunnar’s (2001) categories of deprivation, where children’s medical and physical needs were met but emotional needs were neglected. Many of the children were reported to have ongoing difficulties with language, attention and sensory difficulties, which impacted on their social interaction and school engagement. iiiThe majority of participants reported that many ICA children were observed to be hyper-vigilant for much of their time in school. According to teachers, this state of heightened alertness and associated stress appeared to interfere with the ICA children’s learning. These findings are in line with the literature, suggesting that a state of toxic stress may be associated with chronic neglect and may impact on brain development, which is especially malleable in early childhood (The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2014).Findings demonstrated that the early neglect suffered by ICA children may not only serve an adaptive purpose affecting children’s social interaction and school engagement, but also implied that some teachers may not be fully tuned into ICA children’s needs. Management strategies in the classroom varied, with better outcomes reported by parents and teachers where there was good home–school communication and noticeably where teachers had studied psychology as part of their training. Findings in this study highlight the need for detailed developmental assessments for ICA children as well as ongoing monitoring and intervention in specific areas of development. According to the findings there is also an urgent need for more information regarding the impact of early adversity, especially for teachers and professionals working with ICA children. The significant finding, that teachers who have psychology as part of their training had a better understanding of the effects of early adversity, suggests that consideration should be given to the concept of a module in psychology being included in all teacher training.