The impact of a child's placement on resilience and development of psychological trauma as a function of the child's intellectual abilities

Placement in foster care is a potentially traumatic event for children. Separating children from their home environment is a source of suffering. Although there is a growing interest in psychotrauma in children, the impact of a child's placement on resilience and post-traumatic stress disorder is not yet clear. This study analyses the influence of the child's intellectual abilities on resilience and psychological trauma in children placed in foster care. Participants were children placed in foster care (N=10) and children from the general population (N=30) aged 6 to 12 years old. Participants completed a thorough questionnaire on their history, took an intellectual quotient (IQ) test, and answered questionnaires about their resilience and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Despite the strong severity of the events experienced, our results suggest that foster children appear to be as likely as children from the general population to develop psychological trauma. In contrast, the impact of intellectual abilities is different for children placed in foster care and children from the general population. Verbal comprehension skills and cultural resilience emerged as important protective factors for children from the general population, but not for children in foster care. However, fluid reasoning and processing speed protect children in foster care from developing psychotrauma. Moreover, our study suggests that different factors, such as the number of placements and contact with the biological family, influence the severity of post-traumatic symptoms in children in foster care. According to our results, intellectual abilities are a relevant factor in the study of PTSD in children placed in foster care, but more research is needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms.