Poster #9 - Risk, Adversity, and Executive Functioning among African American and Hispanic/Latino Preschoolers

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Attention, Learning, Memory

Integrative Statement

The development of good executive function (EF) skills, like attention and inhibitory control, promote developmental competence (Diamond, 2013). Executive functioning development is generally negatively related to psychosocial risk (McDermott et al., 2011). However, several studies of particularly high-risk groups have found positive relations between EF and gradations of risk (Herbers et al., 2014; Herbers et al., 2017; Roos et al., 2016). Furthermore, little attention has been paid to differences in risk and EF development among African American and Hispanic/Latino children. Consideration of how these groups might contrast is rare and, when available, tends to be indirect, almost always done as comparisons to groups of white children. We test the relation between risk, adversity and EF among children attending preschool in an urban area known for high rates of adversity and poverty. We hypothesize a positive relation between EF and cumulative risk. We also test for mean-level differences in risk, adversity, and EF between African American and Hispanic/Latino preschoolers as a contribution to potential racial/ethnic differences among families experiencing poverty, an understudied consideration with respect to these constructs.
Data come from a larger study focused on school readiness among preschoolers in Camden, NJ. The participants (n = 61) were 3 and 5 years old and completed assessments of attention and inhibitory control with a research assistant. Data come from four standardized assessments of EF: (1) The NIH Toolbox’s Flanker task (iPad app version), (2) the Dimensional Change Card Sort with developmental extension of the NIH Toolbox (DCCS; Zelazo et al, 2013), (3) Forward Digit Span (Petermann & Petermann, 2011), and (4) Head-Shoulders-Knees-Toes (Ponitz et al, 2008). Scores from these measures were converted to z-scores and averaged. Scores show good reliability in the larger study (Cronbach’s alpha = .73), suggesting a single construct of EF is appropriate. Parents completed parent-report questionnaires about sociodemographic risk and the Lifetime Life Events questionnaire (LTE; Gest, Reed, & Masten, 1999) as a measure of adversity for both parents and children. We constructed a cumulative risk score by summing the number of eight established sociodemographic risk factors present. We also produced a negative life events score from the number of endorsed adverse events for each child on the LTE, which we refer to as “adversity” to distinguish it from sociodemographic risk. Comparisons of African American and Hispanic/Latino groups of children via independent samples t-tests of study variables yielded a non-significant trend of the number of negative life events experienced (t[52.86] = 1.72; p = 0.09) with African American students experiencing 0.52 more negative life events, on average. No other differences emerged. Linear regressions tested for relations between risk, adversity, and EF, controlling for age, race, and sex. Neither risk (β = -.09; p > .05 ) nor adversity (β = -0.15; p > .05 ) was related to EF (Table 2). Results will be discussed with respect to additional considerations of cultural differences among low-income groups from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, as well as other possible risk and protective mechanisms in the development of preschoolers’ EF.

Authors

• Alec Morrow, Rutgers University-Camden
  Presenting Author

• Patrick Michael Hanlin, Rutgers University - Camden
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brittney Twyman, Rutgers University-Camden
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nitan Shanas, Rutgers University-Camden
  Non-Presenting Author

• J. J. Cutuli, Rutgers University - Camden
  Non-Presenting Author