Poster #15 - Longitudinal pathway linking socioeconomic status, executive functioning, emotion regulation, and internalizing symptoms

• In Event: Poster Session 20

Abstract

Socioeconomic status is a strong predictor of child and adolescent development, affecting general health, physical illness, adult morbidity, cognitive abilities, and socio-emotional adjustment (Bradley et al., 2001). Existing literature points to lifelong impacts of lower socioeconomic status (SES) on executive function (EF) and emotion regulation (ER), even if later economic conditions improve. Further, there is evidence that deficits in effective ER (e.g., reappraisal) may be a mechanism linking poverty to later psychopathology risk. Additionally, literature suggests that EF abilities may impact an individual’s emotion regulation abilities (Memmot-Elison & Moilanen, 2021).
The sample included 167 adolescents (53% males, mean age = 14 years at Time 1) and their primary caregivers who participated in six waves of data collection. At Time 1, parents reported SES information (i.e., education, income, number in household) that was used to calculate baseline SES. At Times 2-3 (mean age = 15 and 16 years, respectively), adolescents completed three EF tasks that make up factor scores representing executive functioning. The average was taken to account for individuals who did not come at one time point or who may have performed better or worse at one time. At Times 4-5 (mean age = 16 and 18 years), during late adolescence, the adolescents completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire to report their use of reappraisal (involving interpreting an emotion-eliciting situation in a way that changes its emotional impact) and suppression (involving inhibiting ongoing emotion-expressive behavior) strategies. Reappraisal and suppression scores were averaged across times 4 and 5. At Times 6-7, young adults (mean age = 20 and 21 years) reported internalizing symptoms. These scores were averaged to produce the outcome variable of young adults’ internalizing symptoms.
Results of the longitudinal path analysis model indicated that lower baseline SES predicted lower EF abilities one year later. Lower EF abilities during middle adolescence in turn predicted lower use of reappraisal strategies (but not suppression strategies) two years later during late adolescence. Lower use of reappraisal strategies during late adolescence predicted greater internalizing symptoms during young adulthood. The indirect effects of SES on young adult internalizing symptoms through the serial mediators of EF abilities and reappraisal strategies were statistically significant (see Figure 1).
Existing literature has mixed findings regarding the use of suppression as a link to internalizing symptoms (Dryman & Heimberg, 2018), and suppression may be useful in some cases (e.g., in reducing memory of distressing material; Dunn et al., 2009), but there may be longer-term costs. Further, significant indirect effects indicated that lower SES was related to greater internalizing symptoms, as mediated by lower EF abilities and reappraisal strategies. Our findings demonstrate that adolescents from families with fewer resources showed higher internalizing symptoms in young adulthood. The results further highlight the importance of greater EF abilities and the use of reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy in preventing later psychopathology. Future work may also examine factors that can facilitate the development of EF and ER strategies of reappraisal and suppression, particularly for adolescents growing up in family environments with fewer economic resources.

Authors

• Claudia Clinchard, Virginia Tech
  Presenting Author

• Megan Egan, Virginia Tech

• Brooks King-Casas, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and Virginia Tech

• Jungmeen Kim-Spoon, Virginia Tech