Global deficits in executive functioning are transdiagnostic mediators between severe childhood neglect and psychopathology in adolescence.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Children reared in institutions experience profound deprivation that is associated with both heightened levels of psychopathology and deficits in executive functioning (EF). It is unclear whether deficits in EF among institutionally-reared children serve as a vulnerability factor that increases risk for later psychopathology. It is also unclear whether this putative association between EF and psychopathology is transdiagnostic (i.e. cuts across domains of psychopathology), or specific to a given syndrome. Thus, we examined whether global deficits in EF mediate the association between severe childhood neglect and general v. specific psychopathology in adolescence.

Methods

The sample consisted of 188 children from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a longitud

SUBMITTER: Wade M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8026012 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature