Associations between middle childhood executive control aspects and adolescent substance use and externalizing and internalizing problems

W Alex Mason; Charles B Fleming; Irina Patwardhan; Ying Guo; Tiffany D James; Jennifer Mize Nelson; Kimberly Andrews Espy; Timothy D Nelson

doi:10.1111/jora.12943

Associations between middle childhood executive control aspects and adolescent substance use and externalizing and internalizing problems

J Res Adolesc. 2024 May 16. doi: 10.1111/jora.12943. Online ahead of print.

Authors

W Alex Mason¹, Charles B Fleming², Irina Patwardhan³, Ying Guo⁴, Tiffany D James⁵, Jennifer Mize Nelson⁶, Kimberly Andrews Espy⁷, Timothy D Nelson⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies, Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
² Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
³ Child and Family Translational Research Center, Boys Town, Boys Town, Nebraska, USA.
⁴ Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
⁵ Office of Research and Economic Development, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
⁶ Office of Research and Economic Development, 301 Canfield Administration and Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
⁷ Office of the President, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.

PMID: 38757393
DOI: 10.1111/jora.12943

Abstract

This study examines the degree to which two middle childhood executive control aspects, working memory and combined inhibitory control/flexible shifting, predict adolescent substance use and externalizing and internalizing problems. Participants were 301 children (ages 3-6 years; 48.2% male) recruited from a Midwestern city in the United States and followed into adolescence (ages 14-18 years). Working memory had a statistically significant unadjusted association with externalizing problems (r = -.30, p = .003) in a confirmatory factor analysis. Neither factor significantly predicted any of the adolescent outcomes in a structural equation model that adjusted for each EC aspect, sociodemographic covariates, and middle childhood externalizing and internalizing problems. Stronger prediction of EC aspects might not emerge until they become more fully differentiated later in development.

Keywords: adolescence; childhood; executive control; executive function; problem behaviors; working memory.

Abstract

Grants and funding