Executive function and psychosocial adjustment in healthy children and adolescents: A latent variable modelling investigation

Abstract

The objective of this study was to establish latent executive function (EF) and psychosocial adjustment factor structure, to examine associations between EF and psychosocial adjustment, and to explore potential development differences in EF-psychosocial adjustment associations in healthy children and adolescents. Using data from the multisite National Institutes of Health (NIH) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) Study of Normal Brain Development, the current investigation examined latent associations between theoretically and empirically derived EF factors and emotional and behavioral adjustment measures in a large, nationally representative sample of children and adolescents (7–18 years old; N = 352). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was the primary method of data analysis. CFA results revealed that, in the whole sample, the proposed five-factor model (Working Memory, Shifting, Verbal Fluency, Externalizing, and Internalizing) provided a close fit to the data, χ²(66) = 114.48, p < .001; RMSEA = .046; NNFI = .973; CFI = .980. Significant negative associations were demonstrated between Externalizing and both Working Memory and Verbal Fluency (p < .01) factors. A series of increasingly restrictive tests led to the rejection of the hypothesis of invariance, thereby precluding formal statistical examination of age-related differences in latent EF-psychosocial adjustment associations. Findings indicate that childhood EF skills are best conceptualized as a constellation of interconnected yet distinguishable cognitive self-regulatory skills. Individual differences in certain domains of EF track meaningfully and in expected directions with emotional and behavioral adjustment indices. Externalizing behaviors, in particular, are associated with latent Working Memory and Verbal Fluency factors.

Keywords:

• Executive function
• Externalizing
• Internalizing
• Latent variable modelling
• Working memory
• Verbal fluency
• Shifting

Data used in the preparation of this article were obtained from the Pediatric MRI Data Repository created by the NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development. This is a multisite, longitudinal study of healthy children, from ages newborn through young adulthood, conducted by the Brain Development Cooperative Group and supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (Contract #s N01-HD02-3343, N01-MH9-0002, and N01-NS-9-2314, −2315, −2316, −2317, −2319 and −2320). A listing of the participating sites and a complete listing of the study investigators can be found at http://www.bic.mni.mcgill.ca/nihpd/info/participating_centers.html. This article reflects the views of the author and may not reflect the opinions or views of the NIH. The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

Portions of these data were presented at meetings of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology in Chicago (2010) and Washington DC (2011), at the 2013 meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society in Hawaii, and in the author’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota in 2010. The author would like to thank Nicki R. Crick for her support of this project, Jane Holmes Bernstein, Megan Cassidy, Monica Luciana, Julie Markant, Katie Thomas, Debbie Waber, and Rich Weinberg for their thoughtful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript, and the children and families who participated in the NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development.