Introduction

The association between low socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood and increased risk for psychopathology is well established, but the mechanisms explaining this relationship are poorly understood. Here, we investigate the potential role of difficulties in executive functioning (EF) as a mechanism linking childhood and adolescent SES with externalizing and internalizing psychopathology.

Methods

We examined whether difficulties with EF mediated the association between SES and externalizing and internalizing psychopathology in two cross-sectional samples of children and adolescents (Study 1: N = 94, ages 6–18, 51.1% male; Study 2: N = 259, ages 8–16, 54.1% male) from diverse SES backgrounds in the United States. EF was measured through behavioral tasks and parent-reported behavioral regulation (BR).

Results

In both samples, children and adolescents from lower SES families were more likely to experience both externalizing and internalizing psychopathology than youth from more advantaged backgrounds and exhibited greater EF difficulties – they had lower performance on a task measuring inhibitory control and lower parent-rated BR. Reduced inhibitory control and BR, in turn, were associated with higher externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. In Study 1, difficulties with BR mediated the association of low-SES with both externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. In Study 2, low inhibitory control mediated the association between low-SES and externalizing psychopathology. These findings largely persisted after adjusting for exposure to violence, a form of adversity that is common in children from low-SES backgrounds.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that reduced EF may be an underlying mechanism through which low-SES confers risk for psychopathology in children and adolescents.

中文翻译：

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执行功能作为一种将社会经济地位与儿童和青少年心理病理学内化和外化联系起来的机制

介绍

儿童时期低社会经济地位 (SES) 与精神病理学风险增加之间的关联已得到充分证实，但对解释这种关系的机制知之甚少。在这里，我们调查了执行功能 (EF) 困难的潜在作用，作为一种将儿童和青少年 SES 与外化和内化精神病理学联系起来的机制。

方法

我们在儿童和青少年的两个横断面样本中检查了 EF 的困难是否介导了 SES 与外化和内化精神病理学之间的关联（研究 1：N = 94，6-18 岁，51.1% 男性；研究 2：N = 259， 8-16 岁，54.1% 男性）来自美国不同的 SES 背景。EF 是通过行为任务和家长报告的行为调节 (BR) 来衡量的。

结果

在这两个样本中，来自较低 SES 家庭的儿童和青少年比来自更有利背景的青少年更有可能经历外化和内化精神病理学，并表现出更大的 EF 困难——他们在测量抑制控制的任务中表现较差，父母评价的 BR 较低。反过来，减少的抑制控制和 BR 与更高的外化和内化精神病理学相关。在研究 1 中，BR 的困难介导了低 SES 与外化和内化精神病理学的关联。在研究 2 中，低抑制控制介导了低 SES 和外化精神病理学之间的关联。在针对暴力暴露进行调整后，这些发现在很大程度上仍然存在，这是一种在低社会经济地位背景的儿童中常见的逆境形式。

结论

这些发现表明，EF 降低可能是低 SES 赋予儿童和青少年精神病理学风险的潜在机制。