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Transactional relations between developmental trajectories of executive functioning and internalizing and externalizing symptomatology in adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2020

Alexis Brieant Open the ORCID record for Alexis Brieant [Opens in a new window] ,
Brooks King-Casas  and
Jungmeen Kim-Spoon
Alexis Brieant*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
Brooks King-Casas
Affiliation:
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Roanoke, Virginia, USA
Jungmeen Kim-Spoon
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
*
Author for Correspondence: Alexis Brieant, affiliation was with Virginia Tech at the time the research was conducted. She is now at the Department of Psychology, Yale University, 2 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520, E-mail alexis.brieant@yale.edu.
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Abstract

Adolescence is a period of social, physical, and neurobiological transitions that may leave individuals more vulnerable to the development of internalizing and externalizing symptomatology. Extant research demonstrates that executive functioning (EF) is associated with psychopathology outcomes in adolescence; however, it has yet to be examined how EF and psychopathology develop transactionally over time. Data were collected from 167 adolescents (47% female, 13–14 years old at Time 1) and their primary caregiver over 4 years. At each time point, adolescents completed three behavioral tasks that capture the underlying dimensions of EF, and both adolescents and their primary caregiver completed measures of adolescent psychopathology. Latent growth curve modeling was used to test the associations between initial levels and trajectories of EF and psychopathology. Results indicated that higher initial levels of internalizing and externalizing symptomatology were associated with lower EF at Time 4 (controlling for Time 1 EF). Initial levels of EF did not predict changes in internalizing and externalizing symptomatology. These findings suggest that early psychopathology may be a risk factor for maladaptive EF development in adolescence.

Keywords

adolescenceexecutive functioningexternalizing symptomatologyinternalizing symptomatologygrowth curve modeling

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Type
Regular Article
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Development and Psychopathology , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 213 - 224
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© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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