Roles of Response Inhibition and Gene-Environment Interplay in Pathways to Adolescents' Externalizing Problems

Associations between executive functioning, challenging behavior, and quality of life in children and adolescents with and without neurodevelopmental conditions

The present study sought to clarify the impact of executive and social functioning on challenging behavior and the downstream influence of challenging behavior on quality of life and functioning in a large transdiagnostic sample. Understanding these relationships is crucial for developing and designing tailored intervention strategies. In a cross-sectional study, parent informants of 2,004 children completed measures of executive and social functioning, challenging behavior, child and family quality of life, and reported on functional impacts of challenging behavior. Using structural (path) modeling, analyses evaluated the associations between executive and social functioning, including emotion regulation and risk avoidance, with overall and specific types of challenging behavior. Structural models also examined the influence of challenging behavior on child and family quality of life, including measures of the immediate and extended environment, and functional impacts on the parent/child as well as interactions with the medical/legal systems. Finally, mediational models explored the direct and indirect effects of executive and social functioning on quality of life and impact measures via challenging behavior. Results indicated that executive functioning accounts for substantial variance (R² = 0.47) in challenging behavior. In turn, challenging behavior accounts for substantial variance in child and family quality of life (R² = 0.36) and parent/child impacts (R² = 0.31). Exploratory mediational models identified direct effects from executive and social functioning measures on quality of life and functional impacts and indirect effects for executive functioning via challenging behavior. These findings support the development of new intervention strategies and suggest the need to measure executive functioning when assessing and tailoring the treatment of challenging behavior in clinical practice.

Executive function as a mechanism linking socioeconomic status to internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in children and adolescents

INTRODUCTION

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.

METHODS

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).

RESULTS

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.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that reduced EF may be an underlying mechanism through which low-SES confers risk for psychopathology in children and adolescents.

Trait Disinhibition and NoGo Event-Related Potentials in Violent Mentally Disordered Offenders and Healthy Controls

Trait disinhibition may function as a dispositional liability toward maladaptive behaviors relevant in the treatment of mentally disordered offenders (MDOs). Reduced amplitude and prolonged latency of the NoGo N2 and P3 event-related potentials have emerged as promising candidates for transdiagnostic, biobehavioral markers of trait disinhibition, yet no study has specifically investigated these two components in violent, inpatient MDOs. Here, we examined self-reported trait disinhibition, experimentally assessed response inhibition, and NoGo N2 and P3 amplitude and latency in male, violent MDOs (N = 27) and healthy controls (N = 20). MDOs had a higher degree of trait disinhibition, reduced NoGo P3 amplitude, and delayed NoGo P3 latency compared to controls. The reduced NoGo P3 amplitude and delayed NoGo P3 latency in MDOs may stem from deficits during monitoring or evaluation of behavior. NoGo P3 latency was associated with increased trait disinhibition in the whole sample, suggesting that trait disinhibition may be associated with reduced neural efficiency during later stages of outcome monitoring or evaluation. Findings for NoGo N2 amplitude and latency were small and non-robust. With several limitations in mind, this is the first study to demonstrate attenuated NoGo P3 amplitude and delayed NoGo P3 latency in violent, inpatient MDOs compared to healthy controls.

Genes-in-Dyads: A Study of Relationship Quality

OBJECTIVES

Using dyadic genetic information on older couples, this study queried associations of a polygenic score for well-being with one's own as well as a partner's relationship experiences.

METHOD

Data were from the 2010 wave of the U.S. Health and Retirement Study. Analysis was through structural equation modeling.

RESULTS

Especially among women, the genetic score was associated with individuals' own relationship experiences. Genetic externalities-linkages of one's genes with a partner's experiences-were also observed. No significant gender variations emerged.

DISCUSSION

Contrary to conceptions implicit in much of existing genetics literature-which focuses on individuals' own gene-trait associations-the interpersonal environments most crucial to life course and health outcomes are shaped by the genes of all involved actors. Genetic externalities are a central component. Implications for the life course and gene-environment literatures are discussed.

The Impact of Genes on Adolescent Substance Use: A Developmental Perspective

Purpose

This review discusses the importance of understanding the impact of genetic factors on adolescent substance use within a developmental framework. Methods for identifying genetic factors, relevant endophenotypes and intermediate phenotypes, and gene-environment interplay effects will be reviewed.

Findings

Prior work supports the role of polygenic variation on adolescent substance use. Mechanisms through which genes impact adolescent phenotypes consist of differences in neural structure and function, early temperamental differences, and problem behavior. Gene-environment interactions are characterized by increased vulnerability to both maladaptive and adaptive contexts.

Summary

Developmental considerations in genetic investigations highlight the critical role that polygenic variation has on adolescent substance use. Yet, determining what to do with this information, especially in terms of personalized medicine, poses ethical and logistic challenges.

Genes, Childhood Trauma, and Late Life Depressive Symptoms

Objectives: Findings on gene-environment correlations suggest childhood “environments” may reflect genetic liabilities. The independent psychosocial influence of childhood trauma is unclear. This study examined such effects on adulthood depressive symptoms. Methods: Data were from the Health and Retirement Study. Trauma items included childhood physical abuse and parental substance abuse. Multinomial logit models examined genetic effects on stable and unstable reports. Linear growth models tested associations of stable trauma responses, genes, and their interaction with current depressive symptoms. Results: Genetic risk predicted both stable and unstable trauma reports. With genes controlled, stable responses were associated with life course variations but not late life change in depression. The exception was women’s physical abuse, which moderated genetic effects but had no independent influence. Discussion: Apparent gene-trauma correlations may be driven by flawed retrospective reports. Research is needed to distinguish true from artifactual genetic effects on other environmental factors and establish psychosocial implications.

Altered Neuronal Responses During an Affective Stroop Task in Adolescents With Conduct Disorder

Conduct disorder (CD) is a psychiatric disorder of childhood and adolescence which has been linked to deficient emotion processing and regulation. The behavioral and neuronal correlates targeting the interaction of emotion processing and response inhibition are still under investigation. Whole-brain event-related fMRI was applied during an affective Stroop task in 39 adolescents with CD and 39 typically developing adolescents (TD). Participants were presented with an emotional stimulus (negative/neutral) followed by a Stroop task with varying cognitive load (congruent/incongruent/blank trials). fMRI analysis included standard preprocessing, region of interest analyses (amygdala, insula, ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and whole-brain analyses based on a 2(group) × 2(emotion) × 3(task) full-factorial ANOVA. Adolescents with CD made significantly more errors, while reaction times did not significantly differ compared to TD. Additionally, we observed a lack of downregulation of left amygdala activity in response to incongruent trials and increased anterior insula activity for CD relative to TD during affective Stroop task processing [cluster-level family-wise error-corrected (p < 0.05)]. Even though no three-way interaction (group × emotion × task) interaction was detected, the findings presented still provide evidence for altered neuronal underpinnings of the interaction of emotion processing and response inhibition in CD. Moreover, our results may corroborate previous evidence of emotion dysregulation as a core dysfunction in CD. Future studies shall focus on investigating the interaction of emotion processing and response inhibition in CD subgroups (e.g., variations in callous-unemotional traits, impulsivity, or anxiety).