Depression and anxiety are prevalent and impairing forms of psychopathology in children and adolescents. Deficits in early executive control (EC) may contribute to the development of these problems, but longitudinal studies with rigorous measurement across key developmental periods are limited. The current study examines EC in preschool as a predictor of subsequent depression and anxiety symptoms in elementary school in a community sample (N = 280). Child participants completed a battery of nine developmentally-appropriate tasks designed to measure major aspects of EC at age 5 years, 3 months. Children later participated in an elementary school follow-up phase, during which they completed validated norm-referenced self-report questionnaires of depression and anxiety symptoms in fourth grade. Results indicate that poorer preschool EC was significantly associated with both greater depression and anxiety symptoms in elementary school, controlling for baseline depression and anxiety symptoms in preschool and other relevant variables. These findings suggest that poor EC may be an important risk factor for the development of internalizing psychopathology in childhood. Given emerging evidence for the modifiability of EC, particularly in preschool, EC promotion interventions may hold promise as a potential target in psychopathology prevention.

Interpersonal relationship processes appear influential in the adaptation of caregivers in the context of pediatric food allergy. Psychosocial interventions targeting support and negativity in caregivers' social relationships may help improve their HRQL.

An emerging literature suggests that poor executive control may be associated with clinical weight problems (e.g., BMI-for-age percentile ≥ 85 in children). However, our understanding of the impact of executive control on overweight and obesity in childhood is limited by the lack of longitudinal studies spanning critical developmental periods and assessing executive control using comprehensive performance-based batteries. The current study addresses these limitations in a longitudinal examination of 212 children who completed an extensive laboratory-based executive control task battery in preschool (age 4 years, 6 months) and were followed through elementary school (grades 1 through 4) with objective measures of weight status. Logistic regression results indicate that poorer executive control in preschool was associated with significantly greater risk for clinical weight problems (either overweight or obese status, as defined by BMI-for-age percentile ≥ 85) in elementary school, controlling for maternal education. Executive control in preschool was not significantly associated with risk for obese status, specifically (defined by BMI-for-age percentile ≥ 95), but the trend was in the expected direction. Results suggest that early executive abilities are relevant for children’s subsequent health status, with deficits in executive control in the critical period of preschool conferring risk for later problems with weight. Based on these findings, early interventions to promote stronger executive control may be a promising, yet currently overlooked, component in pediatric obesity prevention efforts.

Poorer EC abilities during the critical period of preschool may be a risk factor for later sleep problems in adolescence. Given that EC appears to be modifiable, early interventions to promote EC development may help prevent subsequent sleep problems and promote long-term health trajectories.

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Sleep problems and EC deficits early in development were associated with increased risk for ADHD symptoms in elementary school. Early assessment and intervention to promote healthy sleep and EC development may be helpful in ADHD prevention.

Two experiments used eye tracking to examine how infant and adult observers distribute their eye gaze on videos of a mother producing infant- and adult-directed speech. Both groups showed greater attention to the eyes than to the nose and mouth, as well as an asymmetrical focus on the talker's right eye for infant-directed speech stimuli. Observers continued to look more at the talker's apparent right eye when the video stimuli were mirror flipped, suggesting that the asymmetry reflects a perceptual processing bias rather than a stimulus artifact, which may be related to cerebral lateralization of emotion processing.

An uninvolved feeding style may be a risk factor for higher BMIz in preschoolers who tend to overeat to cope with negative emotions. For other children in this population, self-regulatory aspects of eating may be more important than mothers' feeding style in the maintenance of healthy weight.