Search

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Method Results Conclusions The goal of the current study was to test prospective direct and indirect associations between preschool executive control (EC), parental affective quality and harsh discipline, and adolescent substance use (e‐cigarettes, cannabis, and alcohol) while accounting for participants' age, sex, family history of substance use, and family socioeconomic status.Participants were 313 youth (49% boys; 70.9% European American) and their parents who participated in a longitudinal cohort‐sequential study on the development of EC in preschool and its associations with subsequent health outcomes. Substance use initiation and frequency (e‐cigarettes, cannabis, and alcohol) were obtained via phone surveys from youth who participated in adolescent assessments. Parental affective quality and harsh discipline were obtained from parental questionnaires in adolescence.The direct effects from preschool EC on adolescent substance use were statistically nonsignificant for e‐cigarettes, cannabis, and alcohol. Mediation analyses revealed a statistically significant indirect effect from preschool EC to adolescent use of e‐cigarettes through harsh discipline (b = −0.07 [95% CI = −0.18; −0.01]; β = −0.04). The associations between preschool EC and any of the substance use outcomes in adolescence through parental affective quality were nonsignificant.This study fills significant gaps in the emerging literature on longitudinal contributions of child characteristics to parenting behaviors, suggesting that early EC deficiencies may elicit more harsh discipline during adolescence, ultimately leading to higher adolescent engagement in e‐cigarette use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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., (© 2024 Society for Research on Adolescence.)