The effect of family and community stress on youth executive functioning and psychopathology

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Youths who have experienced adverse community and family environments are presented with early life stress (ELS), which leads to executive function and cognitive control (EF/CC) vulnerabilities linked to adjustment problems in adolescence. However, significant heterogeneity exists in the link between ELS and EF/CC. This symposium aims to present findings from four studies that examine the effect of several types of ELS (community and family) on multiple EF/CC functions. These national and international projects include data that spans from childhood to young adulthood and have employed cutting-edge methods (observational, behavioral, neurocognitive and fMRI).
Study 1 derived data from a Canadian sample of 132 school-aged children and their mothers, and it showed that household chaos is linked to multiple EF/CC via level of parenting sensitivity. Study 2 included 9,419 youth (ABCD study) to test and demonstrate a link between neighborhood safety and youth fronto-amygdalar functional connectivity via elevations in parental anxiety/depression symptoms. The third study includes longitudinal data from 167 adolescents and their primary caregivers. Findings revealed a significant indirect effect from SES-hardship to youth psychopathology three years later via EF and emotion regulation problems. The last study presents findings from longitudinal data on the impact of adverse communities on heightened discounting behavior over time in young adulthood. Together, these four studies provide nuanced data on the link between ELS and neurocognitive vulnerabilities and psychopathology during ages in which executive functions still develop. This, in turn, provides essential information for targeted preventive intervention with youth exposed to ELS.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Assaf Oshri, University of Georgia

Discussant

• Camelia E Hostinar, University of California - Davis

Individual Presentations

• Impact of Household Chaos and Parenting on Child Executive Function: A Novel, Multi-Method Approach - Presenting Author: Krysta Andrews, McMaster University; Non-Presenting Author: Andrea Gonzalez, McMaster University

• Neighborhood Safety, Parental Adjustment, & Frontal-Amygdalar Functional Connectivity Among Youth - Non-Presenting Author: Sihong Liu, Stanford University; Non-Presenting Author: Assaf Oshri, University of Georgia; Presenting Author: Landry Goodgame Huffman, University of Georgia

• Developmental cascades from socioeconomic adversity to psychopathology via executive functioning and emotion regulation - Presenting Author: Alexis Brieant, Yale University; Non-Presenting Author: Brooks King-Casas, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and Virginia Tech; Non-Presenting Author: Jungmeen Kim-Spoon, Virginia Tech

• Community adversity forecasts delay discounting trajectories among African American emerging adults. - Presenting Author: Steven M. Kogan, University of Georgia; Non-Presenting Author: Sihong Liu, Stanford University; Non-Presenting Author: Assaf Oshri, University of Georgia