Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to identify profiles of self-regulation across executive functioning (EF) and emotion regulation (ER) and examine profiles’s impact on treatment outcomes. Participants included 100 preschoolers (Mage = 4.73, 75% Male, 79% Hispanic) including 37 with autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ASD+ADHD), 32 with ADHD-only, and 31 typically developing children. Parents and teachers reported on children’s EF, ER, ASD, and ADHD symptoms. Children were administered an EF battery and observed for ER during a frustration task. Children participated in an intensive behavioral summer treatment program (STP-PreK) aimed at improving school readiness across behavioral, academic, and self-regulation domains. Latent profile analyses produced 4 profiles: (a) Low ER and EF Deficits, (b) High ER Deficits, (c) High EF Deficits, and (d) Moderate ER and EF Deficits. ASD and ADHD symptoms predicted lower membership probability within the Low ER and EF Deficits Profile and higher membership probability within the Moderate ER and EF Deficits Profile. However, only ASD symptoms predicted membership within the High EF Deficits Profile. Only ADHD symptoms predicted membership within the High ER Deficits Profile. Even after accounting for diagnostic symptoms, profile membership was predictive of treatment response across behavioral and academic domains. Children in the High EF Deficits Profile experienced the largest gains. Results highlight the specificity of self-regulation deficits within and across diagnoses. Self-regulation profiles demonstrated clinical utility in predicting treatment response above traditional symptom based classifications, providing evidence for the use of transdiagnostic approaches.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
The authors reported no conflicts of interest. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.