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Family Environment in Institutions for Young Children in Russia: Mental Health and Development Versus Medical Care

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Child Maltreatment in Residential Care

Abstract

This chapter describes the history of institutions for young orphan children and children left without parental care, in the Russian Federation (RF), and changes made in this system during last two decades. The St. Petersburg Baby Home study “The Effects of Improving Caregiving on Early Mental Health” aimed at demonstrating the role of early caregiver-child social-emotional experiences on orphanage children’s mental health and development, and its main results are described. Maintaining a social-emotional intervention in baby homes after the intervention project ended, and the follow-up study of children transitioned to St. Petersburg (RF) families is presented. The training and structural changes and the baby home model with the sensitive, responsive, stable, and consistent “family-like” caregiving environment developed in St. Petersburg Baby Home project were successfully disseminated in the other baby homes of RF, with the subsequent changes of the Russian legislation and regulations on the system of care for children left without parental care.

…we become ourselves through others…

Lev Vygotsky (1966, p. 43)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This research was funded by Grant R01 HD39017-01from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the US Public Health Service (to Robert B. McCall).

  2. 2.

    This research was funded by Grants HD 050212 and 39,017 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the US Public Health Service (to Robert B. McCall & Cristina J. Groark).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Child and Parent Mental Health and Early Intervention, St. Petersburg State University, University Embankment, 7/9, 199034, St. Petersburg, RF, Russia

    Maria Solodunova, Oleg Palmov & Rifkat J. Muhamedrahimov

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  1. Maria Solodunova
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  2. Oleg Palmov
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  3. Rifkat J. Muhamedrahimov
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Correspondence to Maria Solodunova .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Southwestern Christian University, Bethany, Oklahoma, USA

    Adrian V. Rus

  2. Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

    Sheri R. Parris

  3. Social Pediatrics and Obstetrics Research Department, National Institute for Mother and Child Health “Alessandrescu-Rusescu”, Bucuresti, Romania

    Ecaterina Stativa

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Solodunova, M., Palmov, O., Muhamedrahimov, R.J. (2017). Family Environment in Institutions for Young Children in Russia: Mental Health and Development Versus Medical Care. In: Rus, A., Parris, S., Stativa, E. (eds) Child Maltreatment in Residential Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57990-0_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57990-0_10

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