RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Past research examining the relation between adversity and working memory (WM) has found mixed results and has been limited by methodological issues (e.g., cross-sectional studies, limited measurement of adversity). The present study examined how adverse life events may impact WM among preschoolers who live in financially underresourced families and communities longitudinally over the course of 1 year. METHOD: The sample included 325 children (aged 3-5 at baseline), recruited because of their increased risk of exposure to high levels of adversity, and their primary caregivers. Children completed WM tasks and caregivers reported on their child's exposure to adverse events in the past 6 months across three time points, each time point occurring 6 months apart. Associations between adverse life events and WM over time were explored using a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model. RESULTS: No relations between preschoolers' adverse event exposure and WM (B = 0.05-0.75, p = .056-.764) were found across the three time points. CONCLUSION: Results indicated that at the individual level, when controlling for stable covariates, frequency of adverse life event exposure and WM abilities were unrelated to subsequent frequency of adverse event exposure and WM abilities. Findings suggest that WM may continue to develop typically, in the preschool years, despite exposure to adverse life events. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
RESUMEN
A rich line of criminological theories and research has suggested that individual characteristics may be important to predicting criminal activity. However, there is limited research examining how individual characteristics may be related to the type of crime committed (e.g. violent, sex, drug). To provide guidance to these questions, the current set of two studies used latent profile analysis to identify groups of offenders based on individual factors (i.e. proactive and reactive aggression, and callous-unemotional traits), chosen for their interrelatedness and their established associations with crime, and examined whether these groups relate to type, severity or the number of crimes committed across two studies. In both studies, four groups of offenders were identified, but these groups were not associated with offending behaviors or patterns. Findings and implications are discussed.
RESUMEN
Hostile attribution bias (HAB), or the tendency to interpret others' intent as hostile, has been linked to a variety of maladaptive outcomes including aggression and harsh parenting practices. The current cross-sectional study examined the influence of parents' childhood and adulthood adversity exposure (i.e., frequency and polyvictimization) in the development of HAB. Parents of 324 preschool-age children answered questions about hypothetical social scenarios to examine their general hostile attributions of others, hostile attributions specific to their children, and their endorsement of aggressive responses as a behavioral solution to the scenario. Results from structural equation modeling indicated parents' frequency of adversity and polyvictimization in adulthood were each positively associated with both general and child-specific HAB. However, parents' childhood adversity polyvictimization was negatively associated with child-specific HAB. Further, neither childhood nor adulthood adversity exposure were significantly associated with aggressive responding. The results highlight the importance of adulthood adversity exposure in understanding the relation between adversity and HAB. Future directions and implications of these findings are discussed.
