Poster #56 - Executive Control Moderates the Relationship Between Sensitivity to Reward and Punishment and Behavior Problems

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

The interaction of cognition and motivation is critical for adaptive self-regulation. Deficient self-regulation is implicated in attention-deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as in externalizing and internalizing problems more broadly. Sensitivity to reward (SR) and punishment (SP) are biologically based motivational traits that drive approach and avoidance behavior associated with externalizing and internalizing psychopathology, respectively. These motivational systems are thought to be regulated by top-down executive control processes. In order to better understand the contribution of atypical motivation and problems with executive control to the emergence of internalizing and externalizing behavior, the current study examined whether problems with executive control (EC) moderates the relationship between SR and externalizing behavior and between SP and internalizing behavior among a sample of children with and without ADHD and common comorbidities.

Participants include 8-12 year-old typically developing children (TD; n=72, 43 boys), children with externalizing disorders only (ADHD with or without ODD; n=59, 41 boys) and children with externalizing and internalizing disorders (ADHD with or without ODD with anxiety or depression; n=30, 21 boys). Parents completed questionnaire measures reporting on SR/SP (Sensitivity to Reward and Punishment Questionnaire Caregiver Report, SPSRQ-C; Colder and O’Conner, 2004), problems with executive control (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, BRIEF; Gioia et al., 2000), and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems (Behavior Assessment Scale for Children - Second Edition, BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004). We tested whether the Global Executive Composite T-Score from the BRIEF moderated the relationship between: (1) SR and externalizing problems (with SP, intellectual reasoning ability, and gender included as covariates) and between (2) SP and internalizing problems (with SR, intellectual reasoning ability, and gender included as covariates) among the full sample of 161 children.

Results showed that EC moderates the relationship between motivational traits and behavior problems. This was particularly true for the relationship between SR and externalizing problems as evidenced by the significant SR X EC interaction (B=.1468, t=2.2, p=.031). Probing of the interaction with conditional effects shows there is no relationship between SR and externalizing behavior at low levels of EC problems (p=.280), whereas SR is related to externalizing behavior at average and high levels of EC problems (ps<.0001; Figure 1a). Similarly, EC tends to moderate the relationship between SP and internalizing behavior, although the SP X EC interaction was not significant (B=.111, t=1.8, p=.073), such that the relationship between SP and internalizing behavior is strongest at average and high levels of EC problems (Figure 1b, ps<.0001) although this relationship was also observed at low levels of EC problems (p=.020).

Collectively, these results suggest an interaction between executive control and approach and avoidance motivation relates to externalizing and internalizing behavior problems among a sample of children with and without ADHD and common comorbidities. This pattern of findings supports theories postulating an interaction between cognition and motivation in maladaptive behavior such that weaker EC may result in dysregulation of heightened SR and SP thereby contributing to externalizing and internalizing psychopathology.

Authors

• Keri Shiels Rosch, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Johns Hopkins University
  Presenting Author

• Stewart H Mostofsky, Kennedy Krieger Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karen E. Seymour, Kennedy Krieger Institute
  Non-Presenting Author