Developmental trajectory of flanker performance and its link to problem behavior in 7-to 12-year-old children

Abstract

This study investigates both the developmental trajectory of flanker task performance in children and the association with the development of teacher-reported problem behavior. Five waves of flanker performance and behavioral and emotional problems were drawn from a large longitudinal sample of elementary school children in the Netherlands (1424 children, ages 7 to 12 years). Latent growth curve modeling (LGM) identified a piecewise decrease in flanker response time: the steepest decline was found from 7 to 9 years old. Boys had lower levels of response time at age 7 than girls. Children showed a linear decrease in behavioral and emotional problems over time. Parallel LGMs revealed that lower levels of initial flanker response time were associated with a stronger decrease in anxiety problems and oppositional defiant problem behavior. A faster decline in response time was associated with a faster decline in depression problems, attention deficit hyperactivity-, and oppositional defiant-related behavior. Results offer insight into the normative development of performance monitoring in childhood and the link between behavioral measures of performance monitoring and behavioral and emotional problems.