Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of threat and deprivation on cognition, emotional processing and psychopathology in children and adolescents

Abstract

Background: Exposure to childhood adversity has been consistently associated with poor developmental outcomes, but it is unclear whether these associations vary across different forms of adversity. We examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between two types of adversity-threat and deprivation-with cognition, emotional processing, and psychopathology in a middle-income country. Methods:The sample consisted of 2,511 children and adolescents (6-17 years old) from the Brazilian High-Risk Cohort for Psychiatric Disorders. Parent reports on childhood adversity were used to construct threat and deprivation latent constructs. Psychopathology was measured by the CBCL which generated a measure of general psychopathology (the "p" factor). Executive function (EF) and attention orienting toward angry faces were assessed using cognitive tasks. All measures were acquired at two time-points 3years apart. Cross-lagged panel models were estimated to evaluate longitudinal associations.Results: Psychopathology was associated with threat and deprivation cross-sectionally, and higher levels of threat and deprivation predicted increases in general psychopathology at follow-up. For EF, worse performance was more strongly associated with deprivation than threat at baseline, and only with deprivation at follow-up. Deprivation was associated with attention orienting away from angry faces cross-sectionally, but neither form of adversity was associated with changes over time in attention bias.Conclusion: Both types of adversity are associated with current and future psychopathology and with current, but not future, EF. Threat was more strongly linked to higher psychopathology, whereas deprivation was more strongly linked to lower EF. Lack of longitudinal associations between deprivation and EF mean reverse causality cannot be excluded.

Culture and psychopathology: An attempt at reconsidering the role of social learning

“…Higher p factor scores are associated with early adverse experiences and a family history of psychopathology (Caspi et al, 2014; Deutz et al, 2020; Hyland et al, 2020; Lahey et al, 2012; Martel et al, 2017; Schaefer et al, 2018). Of particular relevance to the current paper, the p factor is also associated with markers of socioeconomic disadvantage, whether they are assessed cross-sectionally (Belsky et al, 2019; Lahey et al, 2012; Patalay et al, 2015), prospectively (Blanco et al, 2021; Caspi et al, 2014; Schäfer et al, 2020), or longitudinally (Snyder, Young, & Hankin, 2019; Wade, Fox, Zeanah, & Nelson, 2018). Furthermore, heightened p factor scores in adolescence are associated with experiences of racial discrimination (Liu, Mustanski, Dick, Bolland, & Kertes, 2017), and higher p scores in adulthood are independently predicted by experiences of childhood and adolescent victimization, after accounting for genetic liabilities and pre-existing symptomatology (Schaefer et al, 2018).…”

“…. Odgers, C. L. , 2019;Lahey et al, 2012;Patalay et al, 2015), prospectively (Blanco et al, 2019;Caspi et al, 2014;Schäfer et al, 2020), or longitudinally (Snyder, Young, & Hankin, 2017a;Wade, Fox, Zeanah, & Nelson, 2018). Furthermore, heightened p factor scores in adolescence are Culture and Psychopathology 9 associated with experiences of racial discrimination (Liu, Mustanski, Dick, Bolland, & Kertes, 2017), and higher p scores in adulthood are independently predicted by experiences of childhood and adolescent victimization, after accounting for genetic liabilities and preexisting symptomatology (Schaefer et al, 2018).…”

Screen time and psychopathology: investigating directionality using cross-lagged panel models

“…Since baseline data was acquired in 2010, mobile devices were not included. Psychopathology was measured by the Child Behavior Checklist, using bifactor models to estimate a measure of overall psychopathology (the "p" factor) with two residualized dimensions of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology [5].…”