Executive Function and Resilience as Mediators of Adolescents’ Perceived Stressful Life Events and School Adjustment

Zhang, Yuqing; Zhang, Xing; Zhang, Liwei; Guo, Cheng

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00446

Cited by 33 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Accordingly, SES effects appeared only in some individual blocks, reached small effect sizes and were inconsistent, suggesting that our test battery was adequately adapted to minimize these effects. This occurred despite SES being known to be associated with negative impacts in brain development (Brody et al, 2017;Foulkes and Blakemore, 2018) and executive functioning (Haft and Hoeft, 2017;Zhang et al, 2019). It is unlikely that this could have resulted from low sensitivity of the SES score used here (ABEP) to cognitive abilities, because it has been found to be positively related to cognitive measures, including executive functions at various ages (e.g., Moraes et al, 2010;Piccolo et al, 2016), attesting its adequacy as a general measure of SES.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Cultural differences may, in part, reflect differences across or within countries in terms of SES. Low SES and the stressful everyday life events with which it is associated (Zhang et al, 2019) directly impact brain development, including alterations in areas such as the prefrontal cortex (Johnson et al, 2016;Foulkes and Blakemore, 2018) and, therefore, executive functioning, through various still unclear biological mechanisms (Johnson et al, 2016;Haft and Hoeft, 2017). Together, these factors result in lower SES individuals tending to score worse on executive measures, within and between countries, but not necessarily both (see Howard et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Adaptable, Open-Access Test Battery to Study the Fractionation of Executive-Functions in Diverse Populations

et al. 2021

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The umbrella-term ‘executive functions’ (EF) includes various domain-general, goal-directed cognitive abilities responsible for behavioral self-regulation. The influential unity and diversity model of EF posits the existence of three correlated yet separable executive domains: inhibition, shifting and updating. These domains may be influenced by factors such as socioeconomic status (SES) and culture, possibly due to the way EF tasks are devised and to biased choice of stimuli, focusing on first-world testees. Here, we propose a FREE (Free Research Executive Function Evaluation) test battery that includes two open-access tasks for each of the three abovementioned executive domains to allow latent variables to be obtained. The tasks were selected from those that have been shown to be representative of each domain, that are not copyrighted and do not require special hardware/software to be administered. These tasks were adapted for use in populations with varying SES/schooling levels by simplifying tasks/instructions and using easily recognized stimuli such as pictures. Items are answered verbally and tasks are self-paced to minimize interference from individual differences in psychomotor and perceptual speed, to better isolate executive from other cognitive abilities. We tested these tasks on 146 early adolescents (aged 9–15 years) of both sexes and varying SES, because this is the age group in which the executive domains of interest become distinguishable and in order to confirm that SES effects were minimized. Performance was determined by Rate Correct Scores (correct answers divided by total time taken to complete blocks/trial), which consider speed-accuracy trade-offs. Scores were sensitive to the expected improvement in performance with age and rarely/inconsistently affected by sex and SES, as expected, with no floor or ceiling effects, or skewed distribution, thus suggesting their adequacy for diverse populations in these respects. Using structural equation modeling, evidence based on internal structure was obtained by replicating the three correlated-factor solution proposed by the authors of the model. We conclude that the FREE test battery, which is open access and described in detail, holds promise as a tool for research that can be adapted for a wide range of populations, as well as altered and/or complemented in coming studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Adaptable, Open-Access Test Battery to Study the Fractionation of Executive-Functions in Diverse Populations

et al. 2021

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“…The self-efficacy based model of resilience suggests that executive function provides much of the capacity for resilience in individuals, with executive function enhancing self-efficacy to enable successful adjustment ( 53 , 54 ). Additionally, executive function yields a greater propensity for resilience in children ( 55 , 56 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association Between Physical Fitness and Anxiety in Children: A Moderated Mediation Model of Agility and Resilience

Xia

Meng

et al. 2020

Front. Public Health

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Background: Anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health problems in children. Although physical fitness as a predictor of mental health, the mechanisms underlying any association between physical fitness and anxiety in children have been understudied. Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine whether an association exists between physical fitness and anxiety and to explore the roles of agility and resilience in such an association. Methods: This cross-sectional study investigated 269 children aged 7 to 12 years from three public primary schools in Shanghai (China). Physical fitness and agility were objectively measured, and resilience and anxiety were assessed using self-reported questionnaires. The moderated mediation model was examined using the SPSS PROCESS macro, in which the moderator variable was agility, and the mediator variable was resilience. Results: Physical fitness was inversely associated with anxiety. Resilience partially and indirectly mediated this association, and agility moderated the association between physical fitness and resilience. Physical fitness had a greater impact on resilience in children with higher agility levels. Conclusions: Agility moderated the mediation of resilience on the indirect, inverse association between physical fitness and anxiety; thus, incorporating methods to develop agility and resilience may lead to better outcomes for physical fitness programs designed to prevent or alleviate anxiety in children.

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“…Similarly, SES effects appeared only in some individual blocks, reached small effect sizes and were inconsistent, suggesting that our test battery was adequately adapted in this respect. This occurred despite SES being known to be associated with negative impacts in brain development (Brody et al, 2017;Foulkes and Blakemore, 2018) and executive functioning (Haft and Hoeft, 2017;Zhang et al, 2019). It is unlikely that this could have resulted from low sensitivity of the SES score used here (ABEP) to cognitive abilities, bacause it has been found to be positively related to cognitive measures, including executive functions, at various ages (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Cultural differences may, in part, reflect differences across or within countries in terms of SES. Low SES and the stressful everyday life events with which it is associated (Zhang et al, 2019) directly impact brain development, including alterations in areas such as the prefrontal cortex (Johnson et al, 2016;Foulkes and Blakemore, 2018) and, therefore, executive functioning, through various still unclear biological mechanisms (Johnson et al, 2016;Haft and Hoelf, 2017). Together, these factors result in lower SES individuals tending to score worse on executive measures, within and between countries, but not necessarily both (see Howard et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Adaptable, Open-Access Test Battery to Study the Fractionation of Executive-Functions in Diverse Populations

Zanini¹,

Miranda²,

Cogo-Moreira³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The umbrella-term ‘executive functions’ (EF) includes various domain-general, goal-directed cognitive abilities responsible for behavioral self-regulation. The influential unity and diversity model of EF posits the existence of three correlated yet separable executive domains: inhibition, shifting and updating. These domains may be influenced by factors such as socioeconomic status (SES) and culture, possibly due to the way EF tasks are devised and to biased choice of stimuli, focusing on first-world testees. Here, we propose a FREE (Free Research Executive Function Evaluation) test battery that includes two open-access tasks for each of the three abovementioned executive domains to allow latent variables to be obtained. The tasks were selected from those that have been shown to be representative of each domain, that are not copyrighted and do not require special hardware/software to be administered. These tasks were adapted for use in populations with varying SES/schooling levels by simplifying tasks/instructions and using easily-recognized stimuli such as pictures. Items are answered verbally and tasks are self-paced to minimize interference from individual differences in psychomotor and perceptual speed, to better isolate executive from other cognitive abilities. We tested these tasks on 146 early adolescents (aged 9-15 years) of both sexes and varying SES, because this is the age group in which the executive domains of interest become distinguishable and in order to confirm that SES effects were minimized. Performance was determined by Rate Correct Scores (correct answers divided by total time taken to complete blocks/trial), which consider speed-accuracy trade-offs. Scores were sensitive to the expected improvement in performance with age and rarely/inconsistently affected by sex and SES, as expected, with no floor or ceiling effects, or skewed distribution, thus suggesting their adequacy for diverse populations in these respects. Using structural equation modeling, evidence based on internal structure was obtained by replicating the three correlated-factor solution proposed by the authors of the model. We conclude that the FREE test battery, which is open access and described in detail to encourage replication, may be useful for research in a wide range of populations.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

show abstract

Executive Function and Resilience as Mediators of Adolescents’ Perceived Stressful Life Events and School Adjustment

Cited by 33 publications

References 79 publications

An Adaptable, Open-Access Test Battery to Study the Fractionation of Executive-Functions in Diverse Populations

An Adaptable, Open-Access Test Battery to Study the Fractionation of Executive-Functions in Diverse Populations

Association Between Physical Fitness and Anxiety in Children: A Moderated Mediation Model of Agility and Resilience

An Adaptable, Open-Access Test Battery to Study the Fractionation of Executive-Functions in Diverse Populations

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