Attention and behavior problems in childhood predict adult financial status, health, and criminal activity: A conceptual replication and extension of Moffitt et al. (2011) using cohorts from the United States and the United Kingdom

Delay of gratification and adult outcomes: The Marshmallow Test does not reliably predict adult functioning

This study extends the analytic approach conducted by Watts et al. (2018) to examine the long-term predictive validity of delay of gratification. Participants (n = 702; 83% White, 46% male) completed the Marshmallow Test at 54 months (1995-1996) and survey measures at age 26 (2017-2018). Using a preregistered analysis, Marshmallow Test performance was not strongly predictive of adult achievement, health, or behavior. Although modest bivariate associations were detected with educational attainment (r = .17) and body mass index (r = -.17), almost all regression-adjusted coefficients were nonsignificant. No clear pattern of moderation was detected between delay of gratification and either socioeconomic status or sex. Results indicate that Marshmallow Test performance does not reliably predict adult outcomes. The predictive and construct validity of the ability to delay of gratification are discussed.

Links Among Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms and Psycholinguistic Abilities Are Different for Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

PURPOSE

Both developmental language disorder (DLD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) represent relatively common and chronic neurodevelopmental conditions associated with increased risk for poor academic and interpersonal outcomes. Reports of common co-occurrence suggest these neurodevelopmental disruptions might also be linked. Most of the data available on the issue have been based on case-control studies vulnerable to ascertainment and other biases.

METHOD

Seventy-eight children, representing four neurodevelopmental profiles (DLD, ADHD, co-occurring ADHD + DLD, and neurotypical development), were administered a battery of psycholinguistic tests. Parents provided standardized ratings of the severity of their children's inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and executive function symptoms. Examiners were blinded to children's clinical status. Group differences, correlations, and best subset regression analyses were used to examine potential impacts of children's ADHD symptoms on their psycholinguistic abilities.

RESULTS

For children with DLD, significant links between their ADHD symptoms and psycholinguistic abilities were limited to the contributions of elevated hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms to lower pragmatic abilities. For children without DLD, inattention symptoms contributed to lower levels of performance in pragmatic, sentence recall, receptive vocabulary, and narrative abilities.

DISCUSSION

Links among children's ADHD symptoms and their psycholinguistic abilities were different for children with and without DLD. Implications for the provision of clinical services are discussed.

Leveraging an intensive time series of young children's movement to capture impulsive and inattentive behaviors in a preschool setting

Studying within-person variability in children's behavior is frequently hindered by challenges collecting repeated observations. This study used wearable accelerometers to collect an intensive time series (2.7 million observations) of young children's movement at school (N = 62, Mage = 4.5 years, 54% male, 74% Non-Hispanic White) in 2021. Machine learning analyses indicated that children's typical forward acceleration was strongly correlated with lower teacher-reported inhibitory control and attention (r = -.69). Using forward movement intensity as a proxy for impulsivity, we partitioned the intensive time series and found that (1) children modulated their behavior across periods of the school day, (2) children's impulsivity increased across the school week, and (3) children with greater impulsivity showed greater variability in behavior across days.

Evolution, the Cognitive Sciences, and the Science of Victimization

Despite clear aversion to such labels, one of the most impactful criminological theories is rooted in cognitive science. Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory has been repeatedly tested, replicated relatively well, and has since reached beyond its original scope to explain other important outcomes like victimization. However, the work never viewed itself as part of a larger scientific landscape and resisted the incursion of neuroscience, cognitive science, and evolutionary theory from the start. This missed opportunity contributes to some of the theory's shortcomings. We begin by considering relevant literatures that were originally excluded and then conduct a new analysis examining the cognitive underpinnings of victimization in a high-risk sample of adolescents. We used the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n = 3,444; 48% female; 49% Black, 25% Hispanic) which contained sound measures of self-control and intelligence, as well as four types of adolescent victimization. Self-control was robustly associated with all forms of victimization, whereas intelligence had generally no detectable effect. We discuss how these findings fit into a broader understanding about self-control and victimization.

A preliminary study of the effects of stimulant medications on estimates of psycholinguistic abilities for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Underlying deficits in inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity might contribute to suboptimal test-taking behaviours during language assessments that can lead to diagnostic errors. Considerations of potential medication effects on estimates of children's nonword repetition, sentence recall, tense-marking, and narrative abilities are warranted given long-standing enthusiasm for these indices to serve as clinical markers for developmental language disorder (DLD). A battery consisting of 1 nonverbal, 1 reading, and 6 verbal measures was administered twice to 26 children (6-9 years) with independently diagnosed combined-type attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). All participants had been prescribed stimulant medications for the management of their ADHD symptoms and were assessed off- and on-medication, with order counter-balanced across participants. Half of the participants had concomitant DLD. Examiners were unaware of children's clinical status during assessments or when they were testing children who had received medication. Effect sizes were calculated for each measure. Significant score differences indicating a beneficial impact of stimulant medications on children's performances were observed on the recalling sentences subtest of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals and the Picture Peabody Vocabulary Test. Adjustments may be needed when speech language pathologists use sentence recall or receptive vocabulary measures to make diagnostic decisions with children who have ADHD.