Growth Trajectories of Neurocognitive Self-Regulation and Adolescent Adjustment

Adolescence is a period of social, physical, and neurobiological transitions that may leave individuals more vulnerable to the development of adjustment problems such as internalizing and externalizing symptomatology. Extant research demonstrates how self-regulation can predict adjustment outcomes in adolescence; however, it has yet to be examined how longitudinal growth in self-regulation may predict individual differences in symptomatology. That is, adolescents who develop self-regulatory capacities such as executive functioning (EF; including shifting, working memory, and inhibitory control) more slowly than their peers may be at increased risk for maladjustment. Data were collected from 167 adolescents and their primary caregiver over approximately three years. At each time point, adolescents completed three behavioral tasks that capture the underlying dimensions of EF, and both adolescents and their primary caregiver completed measures of adolescent symptomatology. Parallel process growth curve modeling was used to test the associations between initial levels and trajectories of both EF and adjustment. Results did not reveal any significant associations between initial levels of EF and adjustment or between growth in EF and growth in adjustment. Furthermore, there were no differential associations between the different EF dimensions. However, post-hoc analyses revealed that longitudinal increases in growth of EF predicted lower externalizing (but not internalizing) symptomatology at Time 3 (controlling for Time 1). Findings suggest that those with more rapid EF development may be better able to regulate behavioral and affective states and thus be less likely to develop externalizing symptoms, and that both early levels and growth in EF may be important predictors of adolescent outcomes.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Developmental Science

Department dc:contributor.department

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Brieant, Alexis E.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Casas, Brooks
• Ollendick, Thomas H.

• adolescence
• executive functioning
• symptomatology

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/82232

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/82232