Key PointsQuestionAmong children born at risk of neonatal hypoglycemia, do those who experience hypoglycemia have worse academic performance in mid-childhood?FindingsIn this prospective cohort study that included 480 participants at risk of neonatal hypoglycemia who were screened and treated if needed to maintain blood glucose concentration of at least 47 mg/dL (2.6 mmol/L), children who were and were not exposed to neonatal hypoglycemia did not significantly differ in rates of low educational performance at 9 to 10 years’ corrected age, based on standardized tests of reading comprehension or mathematics (47% vs 48%).MeaningAmong participants at risk of neonatal hypoglycemia who were screened and treated if needed, the occurrence of neonatal hypoglycemia compared with no such exposure was not significantly associated with lower educational achievement in mid-childhood.

Background/Objective: To examine the roles of anxiety sensitivity and attentional bias in the development of anxiety and depression symptoms among adolescents. Method: 214 grade 7 to grade 10 Hong Kong Chinese students completed a package of psychometric inventories to measure levels of anxiety sensitivity, selective attentional processing, and anxiety and depressive symptoms in 2016 and then again in 2017. Results: Girls, when compared with boys, exhibited more anxiety symptoms and anxiety sensitivity in 2016. They also reported a significant increase in mean depression level from 2016 to 2017. Regression analyses revealed that the physical-concerns dimension of anxiety sensitivity, positive attentional bias, and to a lesser extent negative attentional bias were related to the development of both anxiety and depression symptoms one year later. Fear of mental incapacity could predict depression one year later but not anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: Intervention through anxiety sensitivity training to reduce somatic concerns and attentional bias modification to increase habitual attention to positive stimuli and to disengage from negative stimuli can reduce anxiety and depression symptoms among high school students.

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Objective: This study established cognitive vulnerability of anxiety symptoms among high school students.Method: A total of 72 grade 9-11 students completed measures on levels of anxiety sensitivity (AS), selective attentional processing, and anxiety symptoms annually between 2016 and 2018.Results: Latent class growth analysis (unconditional model) showed a four-class model: High (stable) (6.94%), low (stable) (11.11%), medium (decreasing) (61.11%), and medium (increasing) (20.83%). The conditioned model controlling for the physical-concerns dimension of AS and negative attentional bias demonstrated that a two-class model consisted of a low anxiety class (n = 59, 81.9%) and a high anxiety class (n = 13, 18.1%) provided the best fit for the data. Negative attentional bias is a significant factor related to the development of anxiety trajectories. Conclusion:Attentional bias modification to disengage from negative stimuli may serve as a potential target of intervention to reduce chronic anxiety among high school students.

Aim: To examine the contributions of specific neurocognitive skills to behaviour problems in children born very preterm. Methods:We assessed children born <30 weeks' gestation or <1500 g at age 7 years using subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Fourth Edition, performance and questionnaire-based measures of executive function, and Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher Rating Form. We evaluated the contributions of IQ and executive function to behaviour problems and the moderating effect of sex using multiple regression. Results:The 129 children (mean age = 7.2 years) had lower IQ, inferior executive function and increased internalising problems compared with normative samples. Verbal comprehension skills and working memory were associated with total, internalising and externalising problems at school. Performance-based and questionnaire-based executive function were associated with total and externalising behaviour problems both at home and school. Sex moderated the relationships between information processing and parent-reported total problems, and between teacher-rated executive function and total problems. Conclusion:Both IQ and executive function are related to behaviour problems in children born very preterm, but the relationships are different in boys and girls. Executive function may be a useful target for intervention. K E Y W O R D S childhood behaviour, executive control, intellectual ability, internalising problem, very premature birth How to cite this article: Dai DW, Franke N, Wouldes TA, et al. The contributions of intelligence and executive function to behaviour problems in school-age children born very preterm.