Cognitive control is typically described as disrupted following exposure to early caregiving instability. While much of the work within this field has approached cognitive control broadly, evidence from adults retrospectively reporting early-life instability has shown more nuanced effects on cognitive control, even demonstrating enhancements in certain subdomains. That is, exposure to unstable caregiving may disrupt some areas of cognitive control, yet promote adaptation in others. Here, we investigated three domains of cognitive control in a sample of school-age children (N = 275, Age = 6-12 years) as a function of early caregiving instability, defined as the total number of caregiving switches. Results demonstrated that caregiving instability was associated with reduced response inhibition (Go/No-Go) and attentional control (Flanker), but enhanced cognitive flexibility (Dimensional Change Card Sort Task Switching). Conversely, there were no statistically significant associations with group (i.e., institutional care versus foster care) or maltreatment exposure and these patterns. These findings build on the specialization framework, suggesting that caregiving instability results in both decrements and enhancements in children's cognitive control, consistent with the hypothesis that cognitive control development is scaffolded by early environmental pressures.

中文翻译：

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面对逆境的适应：早期照顾不稳定后儿童认知控制行为的减少和增强

认知控制通常被描述为在暴露于早期护理不稳定后被破坏。虽然该领域的大部分工作已经广泛地接近认知控制，但来自成年人回顾性报告早期生活不稳定的证据显示出对认知控制的更细微的影响，甚至证明了某些子领域的增强。也就是说，接触不稳定的照料可能会破坏某些认知控制领域，但会促进其他领域的适应。在这里，我们调查了学龄儿童样本中认知控制的三个领域（N  = 275，年龄 = 6-12 岁）作为早期护理不稳定性的函数，定义为护理转换的总数。结果表明，看护不稳定性与减少反应抑制（Go/No-Go）和注意力控制（Flanker）有关，但增强了认知灵活性（尺寸变化卡片分类任务切换）。相反，与群体（即机构照料与寄养）或虐待暴露和这些模式没有统计学上的显着关联。这些发现建立在专业化框架的基础上，表明看护不稳定性会导致儿童认知控制的下降和增强，这与认知控制发展是由早期环境压力支撑的假设一致。