Development of inhibitory control during childhood and its relations to early temperament and later social anxiety: unique insights provided by latent growth modeling and signal detection theory

Abstract

Background: Children with the temperament of behavioral inhibition (BI) face increased risk for social anxiety. However, not all children with BI develop anxiety symptoms. Inhibitory control (IC) has been suggested as a moderator of the pathway between BI and social anxiety. This study uses longitudinal data to characterize development of IC and tests the hypothesis that IC moderates associations between early BI and later social anxiety symptoms. Methods: Children completed a Go/Nogo task at ages 5, 7, and 10 years as part of a longitudinal study of BI (measured at 2-3 years) and social anxiety symptoms (measured at 12 years). To assess IC development, response strategy (criterion) and inhibitory performance (d 0 ) were characterized using signal detection theory. Latent growth models were used to characterize the development of IC and examine relations among BI, IC parameters, and social anxiety symptoms. Results: IC response strategy did not change between 5 and 10 years of age, whereas IC performance improved over time. BI scores in toddlerhood predicted neither initial levels (intercept) nor changes (slope) in IC response strategy or IC performance. However, between ages 5 and 10, rate of change in IC performance, but not response strategy, moderated relations between BI and later parent-reported social anxiety symptoms. Specifically, greater age-related improvements in IC performance predicted higher levels of social anxiety in high BI children. Conclusions: IC development in childhood occurs independent of BI levels. However, rapid increases in IC performance moderate risk for social anxiety symptoms in children with BI. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Parental Education and Youth Inhibitory Control in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study: Blacks’ Diminished Returns

“…An extreme example of a disorder with impaired IC is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [3]. Low IC is associated with a wide range of outcomes such as obesity, food choices, eating disorders, school performance, peer preferences, externalizing behaviors, aggression, prosocial behaviors, sexual debut, and use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Low IC may be one of the reasons why youth from low socioeconomic status (SES) and racial and ethnic minority groups engage in more risky behaviors, compared to high SES and majority youth [1,[13][14][15][16].…”

Relations between catechol‐O‐methyltransferase Val158Met genotype and inhibitory control development in childhood

“…Future research should explore what environmental influences, such as parenting or early adversity, interact with COMT genotype to predict unexplained variance in trajectories of IC development (Amicarelli, Kotelnikova, Smith, Kryski, & Hayden, 2018;Moilanen, Shaw, Dishion, Gardner, & Wilson, 2010). Similarly, initial work has also demonstrated a link between COMT, IC, and internalizing psychopathology , in line with other work linking temperament, IC development, and anxiety specifically (Troller-Renfree et al, 2019). Future research should also examine how COMT genotype and IC development interact to influence externalizing psychopathology within a larger and more diverse sample.…”

“…All participants had greater than 50% accuracy on go trials at all timepoints. For more detailed information on task specifications, see Troller-Renfree et al (2019).…”

“…While cross-sectional studies provide useful snapshots of children's ability at a given time point, these approaches do not capture the full picture of development throughout childhood (Karmiloff-Smith, 1997;Karmiloff-Smith, 1998). In contrast, longitudinal studies can leverage data collected at multiple timepoints to build developmental trajectories for each child, quantifying individual differences in rate of change (Barker & Maughan, 2009;Perry, Calkins, Dollar, Keane, & Shanahan, 2017), which has proven useful in prediction of later psychopathology (Dekker et al, 2007;Troller-Renfree et al, 2019). We recently quantified developmental trajectories in IC development across ages 5-10 years, and found individual differences in the rate of IC development across this period (Troller-Renfree et al, 2019).…”

“…In contrast, longitudinal studies can leverage data collected at multiple timepoints to build developmental trajectories for each child, quantifying individual differences in rate of change (Barker & Maughan, 2009;Perry, Calkins, Dollar, Keane, & Shanahan, 2017), which has proven useful in prediction of later psychopathology (Dekker et al, 2007;Troller-Renfree et al, 2019). We recently quantified developmental trajectories in IC development across ages 5-10 years, and found individual differences in the rate of IC development across this period (Troller-Renfree et al, 2019). Here, we focus on the role of genetics in determining individual variation in IC development itself.…”