Virtual Assessment of Attachment: Exploring Parenting Influences on Executive Functioning in Institutionalized Infants

Studies conducted with institutionalized children have consistently identified infant attachment issues and suboptimal parenting practices among their caregivers. These issues have been observed to exert a discernible impact on their socialization and executive functioning. Given the importance of these findings, it is crucial to develop novel measures to detect attachment difficulties. The primary objective of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of attachment patterns, parenting practices, and executive functioning between institutionalized and non-institutionalized children. The study sample comprised 11 institutionalized infants and an equal number of non-institutionalized counterparts aged between 4 and 6 years. Assessment tools included a novel Virtual Strange Situation Procedure, the Neuropsychological Battery for Preschoolers, the Parenting Practices Inventory, and the Child Behavior Inventory. The findings revealed noteworthy disparities in attachment behaviors related to distance from the primary caregiver; the non-institutionalized group sustained a closer proximity to their caregivers than to strangers. Concerning executive functioning, the institutionalized group exhibited significantly lower performance levels than the non-institutionalized group across various cognitive domains, including orientation, attention, academic skills, memory, identification of emotions, inhibition, and abstraction. In terms of parenting practices, caregivers of non-institutionalized children were observed to provide inadequate positive reinforcement. These outcomes underscore the critical necessity of targeted interventions to address attachment difficulties in institutionalized infants and the imperative to rehabilitate areas of executive functioning that have been adversely affected. Additionally, it highlights the need for enhancing parenting practices among caregivers to better support child development.