Griffith Rebecca L, McGuire Austen, Guler Jessy, Nowalis Sarah, Jackson Yo
Department of Psychology, University of Kansas.
Department of Psychiatry, Medical University of South Carolina.
Psychol Trauma. 2024 Mar 21. doi: 10.1037/tra0001682.
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.
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.
No relations between preschoolers' adverse event exposure and WM ( = 0.05-0.75, = .056-.764) were found across the three time points.
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).
以往关于逆境与工作记忆（WM）关系的研究结果不一，且受到方法学问题的限制（如横断面研究、逆境测量有限）。本研究纵向考察了生活在资源匮乏家庭和社区的学龄前儿童在1年时间里，不良生活事件如何影响其工作记忆。
样本包括325名儿童（基线年龄3 - 5岁）及其主要照顾者，这些儿童因面临高水平逆境的风险增加而被招募。儿童完成工作记忆任务，照顾者报告其孩子在过去6个月里三个时间点接触不良事件的情况，每个时间点相隔6个月。使用随机截距交叉滞后面板模型探讨不良生活事件与工作记忆随时间的关联。
在三个时间点均未发现学龄前儿童接触不良事件与工作记忆之间存在关联（r = 0.05 - 0.75，p = 0.056 - 0.764）。
结果表明，在个体层面，控制稳定协变量后，不良生活事件接触频率与工作记忆能力与后续不良事件接触频率和工作记忆能力无关。研究结果表明，尽管接触了不良生活事件，但在学龄前阶段，工作记忆可能仍会正常发展。（《心理学文摘数据库记录》（c）2024美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
