[Formula: see text] Relationship of parent-rated and objectively evaluated executive function to symptoms of posttraumatic stress and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in homeless youth.

Compared to their stably housed peers, homeless, and highly mobile (HHM) youth experience disproportionately greater adversity and risk leading to a wide variety of poor developmental outcomes, and targeted interventions have the potential to mitigate such outcomes. A growing literature highlights the need for accurate diagnosis in high-risk populations given the considerable overlap between posttraumatic symptomology and behaviorally based disorders such as ADHD. Objective testing inferring neurobiological and circuit-based abnormalities in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and ADHD may provide a useful clinical tool to aid accurate diagnosis and treatment recommendations.

Intergenerational Effects of Early Parental Adversity on Child Developmental Outcomes among Families Living in Emergency Homeless Shelters.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with persistent physical and psychological impairments over time and intergenerational transmission of trauma. Few studies have examined contexts of acute adversity with an eye toward understanding intergenerational transmission of ACEs. Homelessness and residential mobility are strongly associated with increased deficits across key developmental domains throughout the lifespan.

Health and Self-Regulation among School-Age Children Experiencing Family Homelessness.

Children in homeless families have high levels of adversity and are at risk for behavior problems and chronic health conditions, however little is known about the relationship between cognitive-emotional self-regulation and health among school-aged homeless children. Children (n = 86; mean age 10.5) living in shelters were assessed for health, family stress/adversity, emotional-behavioral regulation, nonverbal intellectual abilities, and executive function.

Adversity and children experiencing family homelessness: Implications for health.

This study tests links between adversity and health problems among children in family emergency housing. Children who experience family homelessness are at risk to also experience high levels of stress, health problems, and need for pediatric care. Understanding the connection between stress and health holds the potential to reduce persistent health disparities.

The impact of early neglect on defensive and appetitive physiology during the pubertal transition: a study of startle and postauricular reflexes.

This study tested the effect of early neglect on defensive and appetitive physiology during puberty. Emotion-modulated reflexes, eye-blink startle (defensive) and postauricular (appetitive), were measured in 12-to-13-year-old internationally adopted youth (from foster care or from institutional settings) and compared to non-adopted US born controls. Startle Reflex: adopted youth displayed lower overall startle amplitude across all valences and startle potentiation to negative images was negatively related to severity of pre-adoption neglect.

Asthma and adaptive functioning among homeless kindergarten-aged children in emergency housing.

Background: Children who experience homelessness have elevated rates of asthma, a risk factor for other problems. Purpose. Examine rates of asthma and its relation to health care use and adaptive functioning among young children staying in family emergency shelters.

Risk-taking and sensation-seeking propensity in postinstitutionalized early adolescents.

Background: Youth with histories of institutional/orphanage care are at increased risk for externalizing and internalizing problems during childhood and adolescence. Although these problems have been well described, the related adolescent behaviors of risk-taking and sensation-seeking have not yet been explored in this population. This study examined risk-taking and sensation-seeking propensity, and associations with conduct problems and depressive symptoms, in early adolescents who were adopted as young children from institutional care.

The Confluence of Adverse Early Experience and Puberty on the Cortisol Awakening Response.

Associations between early deprivation/neglect in the form of institutional care with the cortisol awakening response (CAR) were examined as a function of pubertal status among 12- and 13-year-old post-institutionalized youth. CARs indexed hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical reactivity. Post-institutionalized youth were compared to youth adopted internationally from foster care (adoption control) and to nonadopted youth reared in families comparable in parental education and income to the adoptive families.