Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2021 Aug;33(3):1016-1025. doi: 10.1017/S0954579420000309.
Fearful inhibition and impulsivity-anger significantly predict internalizing and externalizing problems, respectively. An important moderator that may affect these associations is frontal EEG asymmetry (FA). We examined how temperament and FA at 6 years interactively predicted behavioral problems at 9 years. A community sample of 186 children (93 boys, 93 girls) participated in the study. Results indicated that the effect of fearful inhibition on parent-reported internalizing problems increased as children exhibited greater right FA. The effect of impulsivity-anger on parent-reported externalizing problems increased as children showed greater left FA. Because FA was allowed to vary rather than children being dichotomized into membership in left FA and right FA groups, we observed that children's FA contributed to the resilience process only when FA reached specific asymmetry levels. These findings highlight the importance of considering the different functions of FA in combination with specific dimensions of temperament in predicting children's socioemotional outcomes. Clinical implications include providing suggestions for intervention services by demonstrating the role of FA in developing behavioral problems and inspiring research on whether it is possible to alter EEG activation and thus potentially improve developmental outcomes.
恐惧抑制和冲动-愤怒分别显著预测内化和外化问题。一个可能影响这些关联的重要调节因素是额 EEG 不对称（FA）。我们研究了 6 岁时的气质和 FA 如何与 9 岁时的行为问题进行交互预测。一个由 186 名儿童（93 名男孩，93 名女孩）组成的社区样本参与了这项研究。结果表明，当儿童表现出更大的右 FA 时，恐惧抑制对父母报告的内化问题的影响增加。当儿童表现出更大的左 FA 时，冲动-愤怒对父母报告的外化问题的影响增加。由于 FA 是允许变化的，而不是将儿童分为左 FA 和右 FA 组，我们观察到只有当 FA 达到特定的不对称水平时，儿童的 FA 才有助于恢复过程。这些发现强调了在预测儿童的社会情感结果时，结合气质的特定维度考虑 FA 的不同功能的重要性。临床意义包括通过展示 FA 在发展行为问题中的作用为干预服务提供建议，并激发关于是否有可能改变 EEG 激活从而可能改善发育结果的研究。
