McNeilly Elizabeth A, Peverill Matthew, Jung Jiwon, McLaughlin Katie A
Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, USA.
J Adolesc. 2021 Jun;89:149-160. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2021.04.010. Epub 2021 May 7.
The association between low socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood and increased risk for psychopathology is well established, but the mechanisms explaining this relationship are poorly understood. Here, we investigate the potential role of difficulties in executive functioning (EF) as a mechanism linking childhood and adolescent SES with externalizing and internalizing psychopathology.
We examined whether difficulties with EF mediated the association between SES and externalizing and internalizing psychopathology in two cross-sectional samples of children and adolescents (Study 1: N = 94, ages 6-18, 51.1% male; Study 2: N = 259, ages 8-16, 54.1% male) from diverse SES backgrounds in the United States. EF was measured through behavioral tasks and parent-reported behavioral regulation (BR).
In both samples, children and adolescents from lower SES families were more likely to experience both externalizing and internalizing psychopathology than youth from more advantaged backgrounds and exhibited greater EF difficulties - they had lower performance on a task measuring inhibitory control and lower parent-rated BR. Reduced inhibitory control and BR, in turn, were associated with higher externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. In Study 1, difficulties with BR mediated the association of low-SES with both externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. In Study 2, low inhibitory control mediated the association between low-SES and externalizing psychopathology. These findings largely persisted after adjusting for exposure to violence, a form of adversity that is common in children from low-SES backgrounds.
These findings suggest that reduced EF may be an underlying mechanism through which low-SES confers risk for psychopathology in children and adolescents.
童年时期社会经济地位低下（SES）与精神病理学风险增加之间的关联已得到充分证实，但解释这种关系的机制却知之甚少。在此，我们研究执行功能（EF）困难作为一种将儿童期和青少年期SES与外化和内化精神病理学联系起来的机制的潜在作用。
我们在美国两个来自不同SES背景的儿童和青少年横断面样本中（研究1：N = 94，年龄6 - 18岁，51.1%为男性；研究2：N = 259，年龄8 - 16岁，54.1%为男性），检验了EF困难是否介导了SES与外化和内化精神病理学之间的关联。通过行为任务和家长报告的行为调节（BR）来测量EF。
在两个样本中，来自较低SES家庭的儿童和青少年比来自更优越背景的青少年更有可能经历外化和内化精神病理学，并且表现出更大的EF困难——他们在一项测量抑制控制的任务上表现较差，家长评定的BR也较低。反过来，抑制控制和BR的降低与更高的外化和内化精神病理学相关。在研究1中，BR困难介导了低SES与外化和内化精神病理学之间的关联。在研究2中，低抑制控制介导了低SES与外化精神病理学之间的关联。在调整了暴力暴露（一种在低SES背景儿童中常见的逆境形式）后，这些发现基本仍然存在。
这些发现表明，EF降低可能是低SES赋予儿童和青少年精神病理学风险的一种潜在机制。
