Researcher(s)
- Christopher Costello, Psychology, University of Delaware
- Bernie Chen, Neuroscience, University of Delaware
Faculty Mentor(s)
- Mary Dozier, Psychology, University of Delaware
Abstract
Children who grow up facing early adversity may experience difficulties with psychosocial and brain development, compared to those without adversity. The Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) is an early intervention program developed to mitigate the developmental challenges associated with the experience of early adversity. In the present study, we predicted that children whose parents received the ABC intervention would have higher self-esteem in adolescence compared to those received a control intervention, and such association would be mediated by the strength of the frontostriatal structural connectivity. Participants included 69 adolescents (Mage = 14.3 years) whose parents received the ABC or a control intervention when their kids were infants (ABC = 37 and control = 32). At age 14, adolescent participants underwent diffusion tensor imaging scanning and indicated self-esteem levels through self-report using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). To obtain tractography, the ventral striatum (VS) was specified as the seed, and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) was specified as the region of interest. The fractional anisotropy (FA) was the principal structural connectivity metric. A mediation model was constructed with intervention type as the focal predictor, the FA in the VS-PFC pathways as the mediator, and RSES score as the outcome. Findings showed that the ABC group reported higher self-esteem than the control group (t=2.324, p=.023). However, frontostriatal connectivity was not a significant mediator of the association between ABC participation and self-esteem in adolescence. There was no significant association between the frontostriatal connectivity and self-esteem levels. Results partially supported our hypotheses. Participation in ABC was associated with higher self-esteem than seen for the control condition. Although we did not find support for frontal striatal connectivity mediating intervention effects on self-esteem, the results underscored the importance of intervening early to support children’s development of self-worth and value.