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EARLY CHILDHOOD RISK FACTORS FOR EXECUTIVE DYSFUNCTION IN A SAMPLE OF SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN
Title
EARLY CHILDHOOD RISK FACTORS FOR EXECUTIVE DYSFUNCTION IN A SAMPLE OF SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN
Creator
Grahovec, Morgan Carey
Date
2014, 2014-12
Description
The purpose of the present study was to explore whether early childhood factors influence executive function scores, as determined by...
Show moreThe purpose of the present study was to explore whether early childhood factors influence executive function scores, as determined by objective neuropsychological tests and subjective parent and teacher ratings, in a diverse sample of school age children. Data was collected longitudinally over four different visits that corresponded to childhood development (7.76 months, 20 months, 38 months, and 7 years of age). The independent variables examined in the present study included environmental, sociodemographic, and neuropsychological data from the first three time points. At Time 1, the independent variables were SES at Time 1, infant birth weight, maternal body mass index, parental stress at Time 1, and the psychomotor development score at Time 1. At Time 2 and Time 3, the independent variables were SES, parental stress, the sleep problems composite, the DSM-IV ADHD composite, and the psychomotor development index score. Results indicated that overall, maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, the psychomotor development index score, and family socioeconomic status were the only significant predictors from the first three time points of variance in the Time 4 executive functions as measured by the neuropsychological assessments. The findings showed an inverse relationship between maternal BMI and neuropsychological executive functions, indicating that as BMI increased, executive functioning decreased. A positive relationship between family SES and neuropsychological EF was found, indicating that children from higher SES families performed better on measures of executive functions, as expected. Similarly, a positive relationship was found between psychomotor functions at Time 3 and executive functions at Time 4, which was also in the expected direction. In contrast, subjective parent stress and the DSM-IV ADHD scores were the only significant predictors of the Time 4 executive functions as measured by the parent and teacher ratings. An inverse relationship between parent stress and executive functions was found at all three initial time points, revealing that parents who experience more subjective stress also have children with lower executive functions per parent and teacher report at age 7. A positive relationship was shown between the DSM-IV ADHD composite at Time 3 and the parent/teacher composite score of executive functions at Time 4. This means that children with low executive functions per the parent/teacher composite at Time 4 also had parents and teachers who endorsed greater ADHD symptomatology at Time 3. Subjective parent stress was particularly notable because it was the only independent variable for either of the two dependent variables that was significant across all three of the initial time points. The longitudinal design of this study allowed for the confirmation of the hypothesis that there are significant variables in early childhood that are associated with executive functions later in life. This knowledge has important implications because the more that is understood about executive functioning in children, the more it will be possible to provide meaningful interventions that can maximize a child’s development of this critical skill set.
Ph.D. in Psychology, December 2014
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