Highlights
Lower family income was related to lower prefrontal activity during decision-making.
Associations were found in subgenual anterior cingulate (sACC) for expected value.
Greater adolescent depressive symptoms were related to lower sACC activation.
Executive functioning (EF) is fundamental to positive development. Yet, little is known about how to best characterize constellations of EF skills that may inform disparate associations between EF and behavior during adolescence. In the current study, cross‐validated latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to derive profiles of EF based on measures of inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility using data from 11,672 youth (52.2% male, mean age = 9.91 years) in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study. Four meaningful EF profiles emerged from the data representing Average EF, High EF, Low Inhibitory Control, and Low EF. Boys, youth from low‐income households, and early developing youth were more likely to be in profiles distinguished by lower EF. Profile membership also predicted differences in externalizing, internalizing, and other problem behaviors assessed one year later. Findings indicate that youth may have distinct constellations of EF skills, underscoring the need for person‐centered approaches that focus on patterns of individual characteristics.
Lower family income during childhood is related to increased rates of adolescent depression, though the specific mechanisms are poorly understood. Evidence suggests that individuals with depression demonstrate hypoactivation in brain regions involved in reward learning and decision-making processes (e.g., portions of the prefrontal cortex). Separately, lower family income has been associated with neural alterations in similar regions. We examined associations between family income, depression, and brain activity during a reward learning and decision-making fMRI task in a sample of adolescents (full n=94; usable n=78; mean age=15.4 years). We identified neural regions representing 1) expected value (EV), the learned subjective value of an object, and 2) prediction error, the difference between EV and the actual outcome received. Regions of interest related to reward learning were examined in connection to childhood family income and parent-reported adolescent depressive symptoms. As hypothesized, lower activity in the subgenual anterior cingulate (sACC) for EV in response to approach stimuli was associated with lower childhood family income, as well as greater symptoms of depression measured one-year after the neuroimaging session. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that lower early family income leads to disruptions in reward and decision-making brain circuitry, which leads to adolescent depression.
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