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Poster #30 - "Longitudinal Relations Between Early Temperament and Toddlers' Executive Function Performance"

Sat, March 25, 8:30 to 9:15am, Salt Palace Convention Center, Floor: 1, Hall A-B

Abstract

Previous work shows that a child’s early temperament predicts differences in the later development of executive functions (EF) which may, in turn, influence risk for future psychopathology (Fox et al., 2021; Henderson et al., 2015; Henderson and Wilson, 2017). For instance, behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperament style characterized by negative reactivity to and avoidance of novelty in toddlerhood, has been shown to predict enhanced parent-reported inhibitory control skills but weaker parent-reported set shifting skills later in childhood (Buzzell et al., 2021). Furthermore, Buzzell et al. found that these EF differences mediated the association between BI and socially anxious behaviors. However, although past work has demonstrated associations between BI and parent-reported EF, it remains unclear whether or how BI relates to more objective measures of children’s EF skills during early childhood. Thus, the present study examined the relations between early childhood temperament and children’s behavioral performance across five EF laboratory tasks testing set shifting and inhibitory control skills.

In this investigation, a sample of 291 children (54% female) were recruited and assessed for behavioral inhibition in toddlerhood. These participants were followed longitudinally and returned to the lab at 4 years of age, when they completed multiple laboratory tasks designed to measure their EF skills. Specifically, participants completed a Go/no-go task, two versions of a Stroop task, the Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST), and the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS). One year later, parents completed the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) to report on their child’s executive function skills. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to participants’ 4-year laboratory task scores and revealed that a two-factor solution fit the data best, with one factor appearing to reflect inhibitory control and the other appearing to reflect set shifting. Confirmatory factor analysis was then used to test associations among participants’ early BI, EF factor scores, and 5-year BRIEF subscale scores. Results revealed no significant associations between early BI and either of the two EF factor scores or between early BI and any of the BRIEF subscales (all ps > .05). However, inhibitory control performance was significantly negatively related to parent-reported problems with working memory (Estimate = -4.77, SE = 2.14, p = .025). Overall, results aligned with some previous work demonstrating only modest associations between objective and parent-reported measures of EF (Soto et al., 2020). Results also failed to support previous findings linking early BI with parent ratings of EF (Buzzell et al., 2021). When evaluating for sex differences, boys had significantly higher parent-reported problems with inhibition and shifting as well as lower scores on both of the Stroop tasks and FIST match A performance, when compared to girls. Overall, the present findings suggest that behavioral and parent-reported measures of EF are not interchangeable; thus, future work investigating the associations between EF and developmental outcomes may benefit from a latent factor analysis that considers both behavioral and parent-reported measures in order to explore what is common across both modes of assessment.

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