Bucharest Early Intervention Project

Infants and young children raised in institutions are deprived of typical social and emotional stimulation and interaction as well as typical cognitive and language stimulation during infancy and early childhood.
This places them at risk for a number of social and behavioral abnormalities such as disturbances of attachment, inattention/hyperactivity, externalizing behavior problems, and a syndrome that mimics autism. With funding from the John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation we are studying the effects of a foster care intervention in institutionalized children in Bucharest Romania. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) is the first random control intervention trial with institutionalized infants and children. We have followed two groups of young children through their 5th year of age. Half of these children were placed into foster care under our study’s supervision, while half remained in the institution. Over the course of the study, we are charting the effects of early deprivation as well as the consequences of early intervention on children’s cognitive, physical, and socio-emotional development.

This study is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Program Project MH56193.

For more information please contact:
Dr. Nathan A. Fox
Dr. Peter J. Marshall

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