Poster #3 - Network Analysis of the Association Between Symptoms of Parental Psychopathology and Children’s Executive Functioning

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

A long line of research shows that parental psychopathology is negatively associated with children’s development in multiple domains (Zhang et al., 2020). Specifically, parental anxiety and depression are linked to lower cognitive functioning in children (Craun et al., 2019; Gueron-Sela et al., 2018; Ross et al., 2020). Prior research has also looked at which forms of executive functioning (EF) may be more associated with parental psychopathology (Craun et al., 2019). However, to our knowledge, research has yet to identify what specific symptoms of parental psychopathology may be related to children’s EF. Therefore, we conducted exploratory network analysis to examine the association of parental anxiety and depression symptoms with child EF. Data were collected online in 2019-2020 (N = 437). Families were from the USA (n=210), the UK (n=144), Venezuela, and Nigeria. The sample was predominantly white and non-Hispanic/Latinx. Parental depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire- 9 (PHQ; Kroenke et al., 2001), and anxiety was measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder - 7 (GAD; Spitzer et al., 2006) questionnaire, while EF of children was assessed using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function–Preschool Version (BRIEF-P; Gioia et al., 2003). Three indices of BRIEF-P: flexibility index, inhibitory self-control, and emergent meta-cognition were calculated. We used the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator from the qgraph package in R (Epskamp et al., 2012) to generate a sparse network. The undirected network was based on a Gaussian graphical model in combination with the extended Bayesian information criterion (Figure 1). To calculate network accuracy and stability, we utilized the bootnet package from R (Epskamp & Fried, 2021). Nonparametric bootstrapping (n=1000) revealed the edges that were the most stable, and they were used for interpretation of the network (Figure 2). Among the symptoms of depression, trouble concentrating (PHQ_7) and psychomotor agitation/retardation (PHQ_8) had direct, stable associations with emerging metacognition, while low self-esteem (PHQ_6), anhedonia (PHQ_1), and depressed mood (PHQ_2) were indirectly connected to it. Moreover, self-harm/suicidal thoughts and behavior (PHQ_9) were associated with flexibility. There were no direct associations between any GAD symptoms and child EF. Excessive worries (GAD_3) and restlessness (GAD_5) were associated with metacognition through psychomotor agitation/retardation (PHQ_8). Results suggest that symptoms of parental depression have more associations with child executive functioning compared to anxiety symptoms, especially child metacognition. Within depression, affective symptoms were only indirectly associated with child EF, while somatic and cognitive symptoms had direct associations. It is possible that the children modeled the maladaptive cognitive style of the parent, which contributed to their lowered executive functioning (Pearson et al., 2013). However, the direct association of somatic symptoms with child EF contradicts prior literature which shows only an indirect association among these two constructs among adults (Hoorelbeke et al., 2022). Given that this was an exploratory analysis, future research should focus on theory-driven methodology to further our understanding of these interactions. If replicated, these findings would indicate that we should target interventions more at depressive than anxiety related parental symptoms to improve child EF.

Authors

• Maitri Jain, Eastern Michigan University
  Presenting Author

• Krithika Prakash, Eastern Michigan University

• Angela D Staples, Eastern Michigan University

• Jamie Lawler, Eastern Michigan University