Children who spent their first years in institutions before being adopted by loving and affluent families still suffered long-term damage to their immune systems as a result of early emotional stress, according to a University of Wisconsin study posted Monday with the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Even the health of children adopted before the age of 3 who then spent more than a decade with their new families were no better than the health of children who had spent their entire childhoods in abusive families.
Quoted: Co-authors Seth Pollak, director of the Child Emotion Laboratory in the UW-Madison Waisman Center and a professor of psychology and pediatrics, and psychology professor Christopher Coe.