Psychology
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2270
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Item Early Life Stress Predicts Decreased Total Brain Volume, Cortical Thickness, and Cognitive Functioning in School-Age Children(2018) Chad-Friedman, Emma; Dougherty, Lea R; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Severe early life stress (ELS) (e.g., maltreatment/institutionalization) is associated with atypical neurological and cognitive development. Few studies have prospectively examined the neurological mechanisms underlying the cognitive deficits associated with less severe and more common forms of ELS. The current study examined the impact of common forms of ELS assessed during early childhood on children’s brain volume, cortical thickness, and memory and executive functioning assessed three years later in school age children, controlling for current stress. Participants included 63 children (50.8% female) assessed during preschool (Wave 1 age: M=4.23 years, SD=.84) and three years later (Wave 2 age: M=7.19 years, SD=.89). ELS included low socioeconomic status, single parent household, low parental education, child exposure to parental depression, and child exposure to high parental hostility. Children’s current life stress, cognitive abilities, and brain structure were assessed at Wave 2. ELS predicted reduced total gray volume, cortex volume, right inferior parietal thickness, and right superior parietal thickness, controlling for covariates and current stress. ELS also predicted poorer memory and attention shifting, controlling for current stress. Right superior parietal thickness mediated the effects of ELS on story recall memory. Results highlight the possible consequences of less severe forms of ELS on brain volume and cognitive functioning, suggesting potential neural mechanisms to further explore. Early childhood may be a particularly important time for intervention efforts to mitigate the neural and cognitive risks associated with early stress exposure.Item Executive Functioning and Parenting in Mothers of Children with and without ADHD(2016) Mazursky-Horowitz, Heather Michelle; Chronis-Tuscano, Andrea; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Parental scaffolding robustly predicts child developmental outcomes, including improved self-regulation and peer relationships, and fewer externalizing behaviors. However, few studies have examined parental characteristics associated with a parent’s ability to scaffold. Executive functioning (EF) may be an important individual difference factor associated with parental scaffolding. Yet, no research has examined parental EF in relation to scaffolding. Scaffolding may be particularly important for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) due in part to their core difficulties with inattention, disorganization, EF, and self-regulation, and the resulting need for greater structure, supervision, and consistency from parents. Moreover, parents of children with ADHD may experience greater challenges with scaffolding, both as a result of having a child with ADHD and their own increased risk for EF deficits. Yet, little research has examined child ADHD in relation to parental scaffolding. This study extends the extant literature on EF and parenting by examining individual difference factors associated with maternal scaffolding, and utilizing a multi-method assessment of maternal EF that may more effectively tap specific EF deficits associated with scaffolding. The current study aimed to examine: (1) the association between maternal EF and scaffolding, (2) the association between child ADHD symptoms and scaffolding, and (3) the interaction between child ADHD symptoms and maternal EF in predicting observed scaffolding. We hypothesized that deficits in maternal EF and child ADHD symptoms would each be negatively associated with observed scaffolding, and that child ADHD symptoms would interact with maternal EF deficits to predict the greatest deficits in observed maternal scaffolding. Results partially supported our hypotheses, in that some aspects of maternal EF, as measured by Digit Span and the Hotel Test, were predictive of observed maternal scaffolding. However, child ADHD symptoms did not significantly predict maternal scaffolding after controlling for child age, maternal education, and maternal EF; nor did the interaction of maternal EF and child ADHD symptoms. Working memory and task shifting may therefore be key components of parental EF that could be targeted in interventions designed to improve parental scaffolding.Item Distress and risk-taking in borderline personality disorder: An examination of neurocognitive mechanisms(2010) Matusiewicz, Alexis Katherine; Lejuez, Carl W; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe mental illness characterized by high rates of engagement in distress-induced risk behavior. Unfortunately, extant laboratory-based risk paradigms have failed to account for the role of distress in precipitating risk behavior, so many questions remain about processes mechanisms that underlie this behavior. The current study examined affect as a moderator of the relationship between diagnostic status and risk behavior, as measured by a behavioral risk task, and affective and non-affective neurocognitive functioning as potential mediators of this relationship. Results indicated that individuals with BPD engaged in more risk behavior in the distress condition than in the neutral condition, whereas individuals without BPD showed a decrease in risk behavior across the two conditions. However, corresponding changes in executive functioning were not observed, suggesting the need for continued research to identify alternative mechanisms (e.g., neurocognitive, motivational) to explain this effect.