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The mediating roles of cortisol reactivity and executive functioning difficulties in the pathways between childhood histories of emotional insecurity and adolescent school problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2017

Meredith J. Martin ,
Patrick T. Davies ,
E. Mark Cummings  and
Dante Cicchetti
Meredith J. Martin*
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Patrick T. Davies
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
E. Mark Cummings
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
Dante Cicchetti
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Meredith J. Martin, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588; E-mail: meredith.martin@unl.edu.
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Abstract

This study tested a hypothesized cascade in which children's insecure representations of the interparental relationship increase their school problems by altering children's cortisol reactivity to stress and their executive functioning. Participants included 235 families. The first of five measurement occasions occurred when the children were in kindergarten (M age = 6 years), and they were followed through the transition to high school. The results indicated that children's histories of insecure representations of the interparental relationship during the early school years were associated with executive functioning difficulties in adolescence (M age = 14 years). This in turn predicted subsequent increases in school adjustment difficulties 1 year later. In addition, elevated cortisol reactivity to interadult conflict mediated the association between early histories of insecurity and subsequent executive function problems in adolescence.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , October 2017 , pp. 1483 - 1498
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grants R01 MH57318 and 2R01 MH57318 (to P.T.D., E.M.C., and D.C.). We are grateful to the children, parents, teachers, and school administrators who participated in this project. Our thanks also to the staff on the project, including Karin Gasaway, and to the graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Rochester and the University of Notre Dame.

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