Abstract
Social-emotional problems can emerge as early as the first years of life and are associated with a broad range of negative outcomes throughout the lifespan. There is convincing evidence that poorer executive functions (EF) are associated with more social-emotional problems during childhood and adolescence. However, the nature, persistence, and direction of the associations between different components of EF and social-emotional problems in toddlerhood remain unclear. Using two complementary statistical approaches, the present study aimed to (a) identify the role of EF components (inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory) in the emergence and maintenance of social-emotional problems during toddlerhood, and (b) explore potential bidirectional associations between toddlers’ EF and social-emotional problems. EF and social-emotional problems were assessed around 13, 19, and 28 months of age in a sample of 133 typically developing toddlers (51% boys) from mostly White middle-class families. At each time point, EF were measured with three behavioral tasks and social-emotional problems with a well-validated questionnaire completed by mothers. Multilevel growth models revealed a significant increase in social-emotional problems across toddlerhood and a negative association between inhibitory control and social-emotional problems that persisted across time. Controlling for stability across time, cross-lagged panel models indicated that child inhibitory control at 19 months negatively predicted child social-emotional problems at 28 months, but not the reverse. This study highlights that toddlerhood is a period of significant increase in social-emotional problems and provides evidence for the protective role of early inhibitory control skills against the development of social-emotional problems during toddlerhood.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the participating families of the project who generously opened their homes to us. This research was supported by grants from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture (grant number 2016-NP-188926), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (grant number 430-2018-00008), and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé (grant number 265510) to Célia Matte-Gagné. Financial support was also provided by the Canada Research Chairs program to Célia Matte-Gagné.
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Thériault-Couture, F., Matte-Gagné, C. & Bernier, A. Executive Functions and Social-Emotional Problems in Toddlerhood: Nature, Persistence, and Direction of Associations. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-024-01198-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-024-01198-6