Poster #20 - Trauma and Neurocognitive and Emotion Processes in Young Children within a Psychiatric Partial Hospitalization Program

• In Event: Poster Session 07

Abstract

Young children experience more trauma than any other age group (CDC, 2021). Psychopathology resulting from exposure to trauma may emerge early in development, with rates of psychiatric disorders ranging from 20-26% in children younger than seven years old (Vasileva et al., 2020). However, little is known about the related neurocognitive and emotion processes underlying early emergence of psychopathology in young children exposed to trauma. Although early childhood is a sensitive developmental period characterized by rapidly developing cognitive and affective regulation capabilities, and as such is an ideal time to investigate the origins of the trauma-to-psychopathology pathway, few studies using gold-standard assessments with young children most at risk for negative outcomes exist. Therefore, the current study examined the association between traumatic life events and six essential neurocognitive and emotion processes conceptualized using the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework in a sample of young children enrolled in a psychiatric partial hospitalization program.

Participants included 94 racially and ethnically diverse 4- to 7-year-old children (75% assigned male at birth). Most children were referred to the treatment program due to severe externalizing psychopathology, often with co-occurring internalizing symptoms and multiple psychiatric disorders. Primary caregivers completed the semi-structured Diagnostic Infant and Preschool Assessment (DIPA) interview, assessing number of traumatic life events and 13 common DSM-5 disorders. Six observational Lab-TAB tasks aligned with RDoC positive and negative valence and cognitive systems were used to assess affective regulation and inhibitory control (i.e., Attractive Toy in Transparent Box [anger/frustration], Box Empty [sadness/loss], Popping Bubbles [positive affect], Snack Delay, and Tower of Patience [inhibition]).

Descriptive analyses showed that children experienced 1.11 traumatic life events on average (SD=1.22), with a range of 0 to 5 events; 41.5% of children experienced 0 events, 28.0% 1 event, 12.2% 2 events, 15.9% 3 events, 1.2% 4 events, and 1.2% 5 events. We conducted a series of linear regression analyses to test associations between total number of traumatic life events and six neurocognitive and affective self-regulation outcomes aligned with the RDoC framework. We tested each of the six models with and without covariates (i.e., demographics and symptom counts for multiple psychiatric disorders) to ensure robustness of associations. Given that there was no change in the direction or significance of results, results of models without covariates are presented for parsimony.

Overall regression results revealed that traumatic life events were associated with two of the six outcomes: inhibitory control in the Tower of Patience task (R2=.132, F(1, 74)=11.27, p=.001) and inhibitory control in the Snack Delay task (R2=.081, F(1, 73)=6.26, p=.015). Specifically, experiencing more traumatic life events was related to lower levels of inhibitory control in the Tower of Patience task (β=-.41; p=.001; pr=-.36) and in the Snack Delay task (β=-.49; p=.001, pr=-.30). Contrary to our hypothesis, total number of traumatic life events was unrelated to affective self-regulation outcomes.

These findings corroborated prior research documenting inhibition problems among children exposed to trauma and may help elucidate key processes in the early development of psychopathology by capitalizing on a high-risk sample in a unique setting.

Authors

• Lindsay Huffhines, Brown University Medical School
  Presenting Author

• Sarah E Martin, Simmons University

• Stephanie H Parade, Brown University

• Anjali Gottipay, Bradley Hospital

• Lydia Lin, Bradley Hospital

• Mia DeMarco, Bradley Hospital

• Claudia Paszek, Bradley Hospital

• Richard Liu, Massachusetts General Hospital

• Anthony Spirito, Brown University

• John Richard Boekamp, Brown University