Boys Town Translational Research Center for Child and Family Studies, 13971 Flanagan Blvd #101, Boys Town, NE, 68010, US.
Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska Lincoln, 319 Burnett Hall, Lincoln, NE, 68588, US.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2021 Apr;49(4):413-427. doi: 10.1007/s10802-020-00757-x. Epub 2021 Jan 6.
The goal of this study was to examine reciprocal associations between cognitive flexibility and externalizing and internalizing behavior problems longitudinally using data on four occasions from kindergarten through first grade and test for potential gender differences in these associations. The Dimensional Change Card Sort task was used to assess children's cognitive flexibility as a measure of executive function. Participants were 12,462 kindergarteners (49% female) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K: 2011). Results from multivariate latent curve models with structured residuals revealed that children's cognitive flexibility at the beginning of kindergarten was not associated with their growth in either externalizing (r = -0.01, p = .174), or internalizing (r = -0.03, p = .403) problems between kindergarten and the end of first grade. However, after controlling for individual differences in growth, cognitive flexibility at each assessment directly contributed to subsequent lower levels of internalizing (but not externalizing) behavior problems at the next assessment (b = -0.004, p = 0.013; β = -0.03), suggesting that children who are more flexible in switching from one activity to another may be less prone to developing internalizing problems. At kindergarten entry boys had lower levels of cognitive flexibility (b = -0.31, p < .001, β = -.12) and higher levels of externalizing (b = 0.25, p < .001, β = .23), and internalizing problems(b = 0.04, p = 001, β = .05) compared to girls, but did not differ from girls in their rates of change in cognitive flexibility and externalizing or internalizing behavior problems.
这项研究的目的是使用从幼儿园到一年级四次的数据，纵向考察认知灵活性与外化和内化行为问题之间的相互关系，并检验这些关联中潜在的性别差异。使用维度变化卡片分类任务来评估儿童的认知灵活性，作为执行功能的衡量标准。参与者是来自幼儿纵向研究（ECLS-K：2011）的 12462 名幼儿园儿童（49%为女性）。具有结构残差的多变量潜在曲线模型的结果表明，幼儿园开始时儿童的认知灵活性与他们在幼儿园和一年级末之间的外化（r=−0.01，p=0.174）或内化（r=−0.03，p=0.403）问题的增长无关。然而，在控制个体差异的增长后，每次评估时的认知灵活性直接导致随后在下一次评估时内化（但不是外化）行为问题的水平降低（b=−0.004，p=0.013；β=−0.03），这表明从一项活动转换到另一项活动时更加灵活的儿童可能不太容易出现内化问题。在幼儿园入学时，男孩的认知灵活性水平较低（b=−0.31，p<0.001，β=−0.12），外化问题水平较高（b=0.25，p<0.001，β=0.23），内化问题水平也较高（b=0.04，p=0.001，β=0.05），但与女孩相比，他们在认知灵活性和外化或内化行为问题的变化率方面没有差异。
