The Role of Executive Function at 6 Years in the Association between Behavioral Inhibition at 5 Years and Anxiety at 7 Years.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol
; 52(6): 919-931, 2024 Jun.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38329683
ABSTRACT
EF skills play a central role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety, but it is unclear whether they act as moderators or mediators in the relation between early behavioral inhibition (BI) and later anxiety. The current study tested two models by examining whether two executive functions (EF) skills (cognitive flexibility and working memory) assessed at age 6 acted as moderators or mediators in the relation between BI at 5 years and anxiety symptoms at 7 years. The sample consisted of 422 children from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. We tested the moderation model, main and interaction effects using hierarchical multiple regression analyses and the mediation model with the product of coefficients test. Results showed that higher BI at 5 years predicted high anxiety at 7 years only at low levels of cognitive flexibility or working memory at 6 years. This suggests that high levels of cognitive flexibility or working memory at 6 years may act as protective factors. In contrast, neither cognitive flexibility nor working memory at age 6 acted as mediators in the association between BI at 5 years and anxiety at 7 years. Results support the hypothesis that goal-driven cognitive control processes act as moderators and promote adaptive functioning by dampening the effect of early BI on later anxiety.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Anxiety
/
Executive Function
/
Inhibition, Psychological
/
Memory, Short-Term
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Canada