Poster #7 - Longitudinal Associations of Trauma Exposure and Executive Functions in Children: Findings from a Dutch Birth Cohort

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Attention, Learning, Memory

Integrative Statement

A recent meta-analysis indicated that trauma-exposed youth show problems in executive functioning, especially in working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility (Op den Kelder et al., 2018). Trauma exposure is thought to influence executive functions by impacting underlying neurobiological mechanisms. At the same time, however, children with more problems in executive functions might be more at risk for experiencing potentially traumatic situations such as accidents or abuse. For example, when children have more difficulty with inhibitory control, they might get into more risky situations in which there is a greater risk of exposure to potentially traumatic events such as accidents. In addition, positive parenting behavior is very important for regulating a child’s response on trauma exposure. We tested our hypotheses that (1) lower levels of executive functioning at age 5 are associated with more trauma exposure before age 12, (2) trauma exposure before age 5 is associated with lower levels of executive functions at age 12 and, (3) positive parenting moderates (i.e., buffers) these associations, as positive parenting is associated with better stress and emotion regulation in trauma-exposed children. The present study is part of the Amsterdam Born Children and their Development (ABCD) study (Van Eijsden, Vrijkotte, Gemke, & Van der Wal, 2011). The ABCD study is an ongoing, prospective, longitudinal cohort study among 8000 Dutch children, followed since pregnancy. A total of 1006 children were interviewed face-to-face using the life events checklist to assess trauma exposure retrospectively at age 12. Executive functions were assessed with the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks at age 5 and with the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions at age 12. Preliminary results suggest significant associations between trauma exposure before age 5 and executive functioning at age 12, but not between executive function at age 5 and trauma exposure before age 12. Forthcoming structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses performed in R should corroborate these preliminary results, and provide more insight into the potentially moderating effect of parenting on the longitudinal relationships between trauma and executive functions in children.

Authors

• Rosanne op den Kelder, University of Amsterdam
  Presenting Author

• Alithe Van den Akker, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Judith B.M. Ensink, Amsterdam UMC, location AMC
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hilde M. Geurts, University of Amsterdam, Department of Psychology
  Non-Presenting Author

• Geertjan Overbeek, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tanja Vrijkotte, Amsterdam UMC, location AMC, Department of Public Health
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ramon J.L. Lindauer, Amsterdam UMC, location AMC
  Non-Presenting Author