Peer-reviewed article
Psychosocial, neurocognitive, and physical development in Eastern European adopted adolescents with and without fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Pablo Carrera, Laurie C Miller, Jesús Palacios, Maite Román ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study compared internationally adopted adolescents from Eastern Europe with and without fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) on their physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development. About 20% of the adopted adolescents had FASD, and they showed more difficulties in social communication, working memory, language, and self-regulation than both adopted peers without FASD and community adolescents. Even adopted adolescents without FASD showed some developmental difficulties, suggesting that early institutionalization and other risk factors beyond prenatal alcohol exposure affect adopted children's outcomes.
Key points
- 20.3% of the adopted adolescent sample had FASD
- Adolescents with FASD showed deficits in social communication, working memory, language, and self-regulation
- Adopted adolescents with FASD had lower head circumferences than both comparison groups
- Adopted adolescents without FASD also showed difficulties, though to a lesser degree
- Multiple developmental risk factors beyond prenatal alcohol exposure (early institutionalization, adverse experiences) likely contribute to outcomes in adopted children from Eastern Europe
Limitations
The study relies on parent reports for determining FASD status and prenatal alcohol exposure history, which may be incomplete or inaccurate. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causation, and the sample size for the FASD group is relatively small (n=14), limiting generalizability.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Most internationally adopted individuals have been exposed to an array of developmental risk factors, including early institutionalization and other adverse experiences. Adopted children from Eastern Europe tend to show worse neurodevelopmental outcomes than adopted individuals from other areas of origin. Previous studies have shown a high incidence of prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) among this population, a factor that may explain some of their complex needs. However, direct comparisons of adoptees (from Eastern Europe or elsewhere) with and without FASD have not been previously reported. METHOD: In this study, we compared 69 internationally adopted adolescents with and without FASD and 30 community adolescents in their degree of physical growth, neurobehavioral impairment, psychosocial, and neurocognitive function using standardized assessments including both parent-reported questionnaires and performance tests. The presence of FASD or prenatal alcohol exposure was collected via parent reports. RESULTS: Fourteen adopted adolescents (20.3% of the adopted sample) had FASD, whereas 55 adopted adolescents did not. Adopted adolescents in the FASD group showed more difficulties in several domains of psychosocial adjustment and cognitive development and lower head circumferences, compared with adopted adolescents without FASD and community adolescents, whereas in a few other areas, the pattern was less clear-cut. Adopted adolescents without FASD also presented difficulties, although to a lesser degree. CONCLUSIONS: Adopted adolescents with FASD showed a complex profile of deficits in social communication, certain neurocognitive areas (particularly in working memory and language), and self-regulation. However, given that internationally adopted individuals have been exposed to an array of developmental risk factors for neurodevelopment, caution is needed before assuming that the difficulties observed in adoptees from Eastern Europe derive exclusively from prenatal alcohol exposure.