Stressful Life Events Predict Impaired Executive Function in Urban American Indian Children: Is Cultural Pride Protective?

• In Event: Exploring Protective Factors for Indigenous Children in the Midst of Economic, Environmental, and Social Stressors

Abstract

Research has shown that the experience of chronic or excessive levels of stress can prevent the optimal development of executive function (Blair, 2010; Suntheimer et al., 2022). Executive function is a multifaceted concept referring to a set of cognitive skills linked to school performance and well-being. American Indian children may be particularly vulnerable to stress as many are exposed to environments characterized by high levels of adversity (Walters et al., 2011). We examined relations among child stress (cortisol in hair), child reports of stressful life experiences, and four indicators of executive function: working memory (ability to hold information in mind to complete a task or respond appropriately); cognitive flexibility (ability to make transitions and solve problems flexibly); inhibitory control (ability to control impulses and regulate behavior); and emotional control (ability to modulate emotional responses appropriately). Given that culture is a potent protector of health and well-being among AI children (Henson et al., 2017), we explored if high levels of cultural pride would moderate the hypothesized negative effect of stress on executive function.
Method
Eighty-eight urban American Indian children between 11- and 17- years-old participated in the study (M = 13.10, SD = 1.61; 53 females). Average parental income reported was $37,718 with a range of $0 to $160,000. Cortisol was extracted from hair samples provided by 61 children. Child exposure to stressful life events was calculated as the sum of yes responses on 17 events such as, seen violence in my neighborhood. Cultural pride was measured as the sum of nine items such as, I have a lot of pride in my tribe or cultural group rated on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Indicators of executive function were measured using youth self-reports on the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (Guy, Isquith, & Gioia, 2004). Four subscales of behaviors indicative of working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and emotional control were rated by participants on a scale of 1 (never) to 3 (always) such that higher scores indicate poorer EF skills.
Results
Correlational analysis revealed that gender and hair cortisol were not significantly related to any other variables. Higher parental income was significantly related to higher levels of youth reported cultural pride, r = .25, p = .04. We found that more frequent exposure to stressful life events was significantly related to increased problems in working memory, r =.29, p = .01, inhibitory control, r =.24, p = .04, cognitive flexibility, r =.30, p = .01, and emotional control, r =.35, p = .01. The moderating effect of cultural pride was significant only on cognitive flexibility, b = -.03, p =.01. For youth with a high level of cultural pride, the slope was negative indicating that for each increase in stressful life events, youth reported better cognitive flexibility. Thus, stronger cultural pride may buffer the negative impact of stressful life events on children's ability to flexibly switch attention from one task to another. A trend in this direction was also seen for working memory, but was not significant.

Authors

• Monica M. Tsethlikai, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Juyoung Kim, Arizona State University

• Analicia Zamora Castro