Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T10:36:43.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The mediating roles of cortisol reactivity and executive functioning difficulties in the pathways between childhood histories of emotional insecurity and adolescent school problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2017

Meredith J. Martin ,
Patrick T. Davies ,
E. Mark Cummings  and
Dante Cicchetti
Meredith J. Martin*
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Patrick T. Davies
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
E. Mark Cummings
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
Dante Cicchetti
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Meredith J. Martin, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588; E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study tested a hypothesized cascade in which children's insecure representations of the interparental relationship increase their school problems by altering children's cortisol reactivity to stress and their executive functioning. Participants included 235 families. The first of five measurement occasions occurred when the children were in kindergarten (M age = 6 years), and they were followed through the transition to high school. The results indicated that children's histories of insecure representations of the interparental relationship during the early school years were associated with executive functioning difficulties in adolescence (M age = 14 years). This in turn predicted subsequent increases in school adjustment difficulties 1 year later. In addition, elevated cortisol reactivity to interadult conflict mediated the association between early histories of insecurity and subsequent executive function problems in adolescence.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , October 2017 , pp. 1483 - 1498
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grants R01 MH57318 and 2R01 MH57318 (to P.T.D., E.M.C., and D.C.). We are grateful to the children, parents, teachers, and school administrators who participated in this project. Our thanks also to the staff on the project, including Karin Gasaway, and to the graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Rochester and the University of Notre Dame.

References

Achenbach, T. M., Dumenci, L., & Rescorla, L. A. (2003). DSM-oriented and empirically based approaches to constructing scales from the same item pools. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 328–340. doi:10.1207/S15374424JCCP3203_02 Google Scholar
Beevers, C. G. (2005). Cognitive vulnerability to depression: A dual process model. Clinical Psychology Review, 25, 975–1002. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2005.03.003 Google Scholar
Bernier, A., Carlson, S. M., & Whipple, N. (2010). From external regulation to self-regulation: Early parenting precursors of young children's executive functioning. Child Development, 81, 326–339. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01397.x Google Scholar
Birch, S. H., & Ladd, G. W. (1997). The teacher-child relationship and children's early school adjustment. Journal of School Psychology, 35, 61–79. doi:10.1016/S0022-4405(96)00029-5 Google Scholar
Blair, C. (2002). School readiness: Integrating cognition and emotion in a neurobiological conceptualization of children's functioning at school entry. American Psychologist, 57, 111–127. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.57.2.111 Google Scholar
Blair, C., Granger, D. A., & Razza, R. P. (2005). Cortisol reactivity is positively related to executive function in preschool children attending Head Start. Child Development, 76, 554–567. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00863.x Google Scholar
Blair, C., Granger, D. A., Willoughby, M., Mills-Koonce, R., Cox, M., Greenberg, M. T., … Fortunato, C. K. (2011). Salivary cortisol mediates effects of poverty and parenting on executive functions in early childhood. Child Development, 82, 1970–1984. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01643.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blair, C., & Raver, C. C. (2015). School readiness and self-regulation: A developmental psychobiological approach. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 711–731. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015221 Google Scholar
Blair, C., Raver, C. C., & Berry, D. J. (2014). Two approaches to estimating the effect of parenting on the development of executive function in early childhood. Developmental Psychology, 50, 554–565. doi:10.1037/a0033647 Google Scholar
Bretherton, I., Oppenheim, D., Buchsbaum, H., Emde, R. N., & MacArthur Narrative Group (1990). MacArthur Story-Stem Battery. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Buehler, C., Lange, G., & Franck, K. L. (2007). Adolescents’ cognitive and emotional responses to marital hostility. Child Development, 78, 775–789. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01032.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coe, J. L., Davies, P. T., & Sturge-Apple, M. L. (in press). The multivariate roles of family instability and interparental conflict in predicting children's representations of insecurity in the family system and early school adjustment problems. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. doi:10.1007/s10802-016-0164-6 Google Scholar
Conners, C. K. (2000). Conners’ Continuous Performance Test II: Technical guide. Toronto: Multi-Health Systems.Google Scholar
Cowell, R. A., Cicchetti, D., Rogosch, F. A., & Toth, S. L. (2015). Childhood maltreatment and its effect on neurocognitive functioning: Timing and chronicity matter. Development and Psychopathology, 27, 521–533. doi:10.1017/S0954579415000139 Google Scholar
Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. (1996). Emotional security as a regulatory process in normal development and the development of psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 123–139. doi:10.1017/S0954579400007008 Google Scholar
Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. T. (2010). Marital conflict and children: An emotional security perspective. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., & Cummings, E. M. (1994). Marital conflict and child adjustment: An emotional security hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 387–411. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.116.3.387 Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., & Cummings, E. M. (1998). Exploring children's emotional security as a mediator of the link between marital relations and child adjustment. Child Development, 69, 124–139. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06138.x Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., & Martin, M. J. (2013). The reformulation of emotional security theory: The role of children's social defense in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 25, 1435–1454. doi:10.1017/S0954579413000709 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davies, P. T., Sturge-Apple, M. L., & Cicchetti, D. (2011). Interparental aggression and children's adrenocortical reactivity: Testing an evolutionary model of allostatic load. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 801–814. doi:10.1017/S0954579411000319 Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., Sturge-Apple, M. L., Cicchetti, D., & Cummings, E. M. (2008). Adrenocortical underpinnings of children's psychological reactivity to interparental conflict. Child Development, 79, 1693–1706. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01219.x Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., Sturge-Apple, M. L., & Martin, M. J. (2013). Family discord and child health: An emotional security formulation. In Lansdale, N. S., McHale, S. M., & Booth, A. (Eds.), Families and child health (pp. 45–74). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., Sturge-Apple, M. L., Winter, M. A., Cummings, E. M., & Farrell, D. (2006). Child adaptational development in contexts of interparental conflict over time. Child Development, 77, 218–233. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00866.x Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., Winter, M. A., & Cicchetti, D. (2006). The implications of emotional security theory for understanding and treating childhood psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 18, 707–735. doi:10.1017/S0954579406060354 Google Scholar
Davies, P. T., Woitach, M. J., Winter, M. A., & Cummings, E. M. (2008). Children's insecure representations of the interparental relationship and their school adjustment: The mediating role of attention difficulties. Child Development, 79, 1570–1582. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01206.x Google Scholar
De Bellis, M. D., & Thomas, L. A. (2003). Biologic findings of post-traumatic stress disorder and child maltreatment. Current Psychiatry Reports, 5, 108–117. doi:10.1007/s11920-003-0027-z Google Scholar
Del Giudice, M., Ellis, B. J., & Shirtcliff, E. A. (2013). Making sense of stress: An evolutionary-developmental framework. In Laviola, G. & Macri, S. (Eds.), Adaptive and maladaptive aspects of developmental stress (pp. 23–43). New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickerson, S. S., & Kemeny, M. E. (2004). Acute stressors and cortisol responses: A theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 355–391. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.355 Google Scholar
Du Rocher Schudlich, T. D., Papp, L. M., & Cummings, E. M. (2004). Relations of husbands’ and wives’ dysphoria to marital conflict resolution strategies. Journal of Family Psychology, 18, 171–183. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.18.1.171 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellis, L. K., Rothbart, M. K., & Posner, M. I. (2004). Individual differences in executive attention predict self-regulation and adolescent psychosocial behaviors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1021, 337–340. doi:10.1196/annals.1308.041 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Enders, C. K. (2001). The impact of nonnormality on full information maximum-likelihood estimation for structural equation models with missing data. Psychological Methods, 6, 352–370. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.6.4.352 Google Scholar
Entwistle, D. R., & Astone, N. (1994). Some practical guidelines for measuring youth's race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Child Development, 65, 1521–1540. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1994.tb00833.x Google Scholar
Gau, S. S. F., & Shang, C. Y. (2010). Executive functions as endophenotypes in ADHD: Evidence from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Battery (CANTAB). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51, 838–849. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02215.x Google Scholar
Gonzalez, A., Jenkins, J. M., Steiner, M., & Fleming, A. S. (2012). Maternal early life experiences and parenting: The mediating role of cortisol and executive function. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 51, 673–682. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2012.04.003 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, R., & Scott, S. (1997) Child psychiatry. Oxford: Blackwell Science.Google Scholar
Granger, D. A., Weisz, J. R., McCracken, J. T., Ikeda, S. C., & Douglas, P. (1996). Reciprocal influences among adrenocortical activation, psychosocial processes, and the behavioral adjustment of clinic-referred children. Child Development, 67, 3250–3262. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01912.x Google Scholar
Grych, J. H., & Fincham, F. D. (1990). Marital conflict and children's adjustment: A cognitive-contextual framework. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 267–290. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.108.2.267 Google Scholar
Grych, J. H., Harold, G. T., & Miles, C. J. (2003). A prospective investigation of appraisals as mediators of the link between interparental conflict and child adjustment. Child Development, 74, 1176–1193. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00600 Google Scholar
Gunnar, M. R., & Vazquez, D. M. (2001). Low cortisol and a flattening of expected daytime rhythm: Potential indices of risk in human development. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 515–538. doi:10.1017/S0954579401003066 Google Scholar
Gunnar, M. R., & Vasquez, D. M. (2006). Stress neurobiology and developmental psychopathology. In Cicchetti, D. & Cohen, D. J. (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 2. Developmental neuroscience (2nd ed., pp. 533–577). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Gustafsson, H. C., Coffman, J. L., & Cox, M. J. (2015). Intimate partner violence, maternal sensitive parenting behaviors, and children's executive functioning. Psychology of Violence, 5, 266–274. doi:10.1037/a0037971 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harter, S. (1988). Manual for the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. Denver, CO: University of Denver Press.Google Scholar
Hill, A. C., Laird, A. R., & Robinson, J. L. (2014). Gender differences in working memory networks: A BrainMap meta-analysis. Biological Psychology, 102, 18–29. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2014.06.008 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hinnant, J. B., El-Sheikh, M., Keiley, M., & Buckhalt, J. A. (2013). Marital conflict, allostatic load, and the development of children's fluid cognitive performance. Child Development, 84, 2003–2014. doi:10.1111/cdev.12103 Google Scholar
Hofmann, W., Schmeichel, B. J., & Baddeley, A. D. (2012). Executive functions and self-regulation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 174–180. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2012.01.006 Google Scholar
Holmes, C. J., Kim-Spoon, J., & Deater-Deckard, K. (2016). Linking executive function and peer problems from early childhood through middle adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 44, 31–42. doi:10.1007/s10802-015-0044-5 Google Scholar
Inzlicht, M., & Schmeichel, B. J. (2012). What is ego depletion? Toward a mechanistic revision of the resource model of self-control. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 450–463. doi:10.1177/1745691612454134 Google Scholar
Johnston, J. R., Roseby, V., & Kuehnle, K. (2009). In the name of the child: A developmental approach to understanding and helping children of conflicted and violent divorce (2nd ed.). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Kaplan, S., & Berman, M. G. (2010). Directed attention as a common resource for executive functioning and self-regulation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 43–57. doi:10.1177/1745691609356784 Google Scholar
Kerig, P. K. (1996). Assessing the links between interparental conflict and child adjustment: The conflicts and problem-solving scales. Journal of Family Psychology, 10, 454–473. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.10.4.454 Google Scholar
Kitzmann, K. M., Gaylord, N. K., Holt, A. R., & Kenny, E. D. (2003). Child witnesses to domestic violence: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71, 339–352. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.71.2.339 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Korte, S. M., Koolhaas, J. M., Wingfield, J. C., & McEwen, B. S. (2005). The Darwinian concept of stress: Benefits of allostasis and costs of allostatic load and the trade-offs in health and disease. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 29, 3–38. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2004.08.009 Google Scholar
Koss, K. J., George, M. R., Davies, P. T., Cicchetti, D., Cummings, E. M., & Sturge-Apple, M. L. (2013). Patterns of children's adrenocortical reactivity to interparental conflict and associations with child adjustment: A growth mixture modeling approach. Developmental Psychology, 49, 317–326. doi:10.1037/a0028246 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ladd, G. W., & Profilet, S. M. (1996). The Child Behavior Scale: A teacher-report measure of young children's aggressive, withdrawn, and prosocial behaviors. Developmental Psychology, 32, 1008–1024. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.32.6.1008 Google Scholar
Langenkamp, A. G. (2010). Academic vulnerability and resilience during the transition to high school: The role of social relationships and district context. Sociology of Education, 83, 1–19. doi:10.1177/0038040709356563 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latzman, R. D., Elkovitch, N., Young, J., & Clark, L. A. (2010). The contribution of executive functioning to academic achievement among male adolescents. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 32, 455–462. doi:10.1080/13803390903164363 Google Scholar
Lengua, L. J., Kiff, C., Moran, L., Zalewski, M., Thompson, S., Cortes, R., & Ruberry, E. (2014). Parenting mediates the effects of income and cumulative risk on the development of effortful control. Social Development, 23, 631–649. doi:10.1111/sode.12071 Google Scholar
Loman, M. M., & Gunnar, M. R. (2010). Early experience and the development of stress reactivity and regulation in children. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 34, 867–876. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2009.05.007 Google Scholar
Loney, B. R., Butler, M. A., Lima, E. N., Counts, C. A., & Eckel, L. A. (2006). The relation between salivary cortisol, callous-unemotional traits, and conduct problems in an adolescent non-referred sample. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 30–36. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2005.01444.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luciana, M., Conklin, H. M., Hooper, C. J., & Yarger, R. S. (2005). The development of nonverbal working memory and executive control processes in adolescents. Child Development, 76, 697–712. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00872.x Google Scholar
Luciana, M., & Nelson, C. A. (2002). Assessment of neuropsychological function through use of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Testing Automated Battery: Performance in 4- to 12-year-old children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 22, 595–624. doi:10.1207/S15326942DN2203_3 Google Scholar
Lupien, S. J., Fiocco, A., Wan, N., Maheu, F., Lord, C., Schramek, T., & Tu, M. (2005). Stress hormones and human memory function across the lifespan. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 30, 225–242. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2004.08.003 Google Scholar
Lupien, S. J., King, S., Meaney, M. J., & McEwen, B. S. (2001). Can poverty get under your skin? Basal cortisol levels and cognitive function in children from low and high socioeconomic status. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 653–676.Google Scholar
Lupien, S. J., McEwen, B. S., Gunnar, M. R., & Heim, C. (2009). Effects of stress throughout the lifespan on the brain, behaviour and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 434–445. doi:10.1038/nrn2639 Google Scholar
MacKinnon, D. P., Fritz, M. S., Williams, J., & Lockwood, C. M. (2007). Distribution of the product confidence limits for the indirect effect: Program PRODCLIN. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 384–389. doi:10.3758/BF03193007 Google Scholar
Malik, N. M., & Lindahl, K. M. (2004). System for coding interactions in dyads (SCID). In Kerig, P. K. & Baucom, D. H. (Eds.), Couple observational coding systems (pp. 173–188). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Masten, A. S., & Cicchetti, D. (2010). Developmental cascades. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 491–495. doi:10.1017/S0954579410000222 Google Scholar
Monk, C. S., & Nelson, C. A. (2002). The effects of hydrocortisone on cognitive and neural function: A behavioral and event-related potential investigation. Neuropsychopharmacology, 26, 505–519. doi:10.1038/S0893-133X(01)00384-0 Google Scholar
Porter, B., & O'Leary, K. D. (1980). Marital discord and childhood behavior problems. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 8, 287–295. doi:10.1007/BF00916376 Google Scholar
Repetti, R. L., Robles, T. F., & Reynolds, B. (2011). Allostatic processes in the family. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 921–938. doi:10.1017/S095457941100040x Google Scholar
Repetti, R. L., Taylor, S. E., & Seeman, T. E. (2002). Risky families: Family social environments and the mental and physical health of offspring. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 330–366. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.128.2.330 Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The developing brain in a multitasking world. Developmental Review, 35, 42–63. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2014.12.006 Google Scholar
Shelton, K. H., & Harold, G. T. (2008). Interparental conflict, negative parenting, and children's adjustment: Bridging links between parents’ depression and children's psychological distress. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 712–724.Google Scholar
Snyder, H. R. (2013). Major depressive disorder is associated with broad impairments on neuropsychological measures of executive function: A meta-analysis and review. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 81–132. doi:10.1037/a0028727 Google Scholar
Spinrad, T. L., Eisenberg, N., Granger, D. A., Eggum, N. D., Sallquist, J., Haugen, R. G., … Hofer, C. (2009). Individual differences in preschoolers’ salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase reactivity: Relations to temperament and maladjustment. Hormones and Behavior, 56, 133–139. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2009.03.020 Google Scholar
Steinberg, L. (2005). Cognitive and affective development in adolescence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 69–74. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2004.12.005 Google Scholar
Sturge-Apple, M. L., Davies, P. T., Cicchetti, D., & Manning, L. G. (2012). Interparental violence, maternal emotional unavailability and children's cortisol functioning in family contexts. Developmental Psychology, 48, 237–249. doi:10.1037/a0025419 Google Scholar
Sturge-Apple, M. L., Davies, P. T., Winter, M. A., Cummings, E. M., & Schermerhorn, A. (2008). Interparental conflict and children's school adjustment: The explanatory role of children's internal representations of interparental and parent-child relationships. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1678–1690. doi:10.1037/a0013857 Google Scholar
Suor, J. H., Sturge-Apple, M. L., Davies, P. T., Cicchetti, D., & Manning, L. G. (2015). Tracing differential pathways of risk: Associations among family adversity, cortisol, and cognitive functioning in childhood. Child Development, 86, 1142–1158. doi:10.1111/cdev.12376 Google Scholar
Susman, E. J. (2006). Psychobiology of persistent antisocial behavior: Stress, early vulnerabilities and the attenuation hypothesis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 30, 376–389. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.08.002 Google Scholar
Toth, S. L., Rogosch, F. A., Sturge-Apple, M., & Cicchetti, D. (2009). Maternal depression, children's attachment security, and representational development: An organizational perspective. Child Development, 80, 192–208. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01254.x Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D., Anderson, J. E., Richler, J., Wallner-Allen, K., Beaumont, J. L., & Weintraub, S. (2013). NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (CB): Measuring executive function and attention. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 78(4, Serial No. 309). doi:10.1111/mono.12032 Google Scholar
Zelazo, P. D., & Müller, U. (2010). Executive function in typical and atypical development. In Goswami, U. (Ed.), The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of childhood cognitive development (2nd ed., pp. 574–603). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar