Genetic relations between effortful and attentional control and symptoms of psychopathology in middle childhood

Abstract

Elucidating the genetic and environmental etiology of effortful control (mother and father report at two time points), attentional control (observer reports) and their associations with internalizing and externalizing symptoms (mother and father report) is the central focus of this paper. With a sample of twins in middle childhood participating in the Wisconsin Twin Project, broad sense heritability for parental report effortful control ranged from 68–79%, with a slightly higher heritability estimate of 83% for observer report attentional control, and no influence of the shared environment on either trait. Further, measures of control were negatively correlated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms longitudinally, concurrently, and across reporters. Importantly, shared additive genetic influence accounted for the covariation between the control variables and symptoms of psychopathology. These results encourage identification of common genes that affect both effortful control and symptoms, and environmental triggers that uniquely influence symptoms of psychopathology.

Temperament synergies in risk for and protection against depressive symptoms: A prospective replication of a three-way interaction

“…Few studies have yet considered EC in relation to depressive symptoms, but those doing so have generally found low levels of EC to be associated with elevated depressive and internalizing symptoms (see Carver et al, 2008). This is true both concurrently (e.g., Loukas & Roalson, 2006;Muris, 2006;Verstraeten, Vasey, Raes, & Bijttebier, 2009;Yap et al, 2011) and prospectively (Lemery-Chalfant, Doelger, & Goldsmith, 2008;Oldehinkel, Hartman, Ferdinand, Verhulst, & Ormel, 2007), though studies looking specifically at depressive symptoms have thus far not found a prospective association (Loukas & Roalson, 2006;Verstraeten et al, 2009). Similarly, research on conscientiousness demonstrates a clear negative association with concurrent depressive symptoms, though studies examining the role of conscientiousness in the development of depressive symptoms over time are lacking (see Klein et al, 2011;Kotov, Gamez, Schmidt, & Watson, 2010).…”

Is There Room for ‘Development’ in Developmental Models of Information Processing Biases to Threat in Children and Adolescents?

“…As such, two models in the literature suggest that some form of effortful cognitive control is an important developmental skill in inhibiting attentional biases to threat. There is evidence supporting this idea: (1) anxious children show deficits in effortful attentional control and have difficulty in disengaging from unpleasant stimuli (Derryberry and Reed 2002;Lonigan et al 2004); (2) low effortful control (over attention) is related to changes in anxiety-related maladjustment in children with an average age of 7 (Eisenberg et al 2009); (3) attentional control is negatively related to anxiety symptoms in 8-to 13-year-old children (Muris et al 2004); (4) the relationship between negative affectivity (a predictor of anxiety symptoms) and selective attention to threat in high trait anxious adolescents is moderated by effortful control (Lonigan and Vasey 2009); and (5) anxiety and effortful control might also share common genes (Lemery-Chalfant et al 2008) suggesting that the two constructs are genetically linked. Therefore, the failure to develop effortful and attentional control in middle to late childhood (e.g., 10-14 years) represents a viable developmental mechanism by which common attentional biases to threat may become extreme and maladaptive.…”

Predicting Academic Achievement from Cumulative Home Risk: The Mediating Roles of Effortful Control, Academic Relationships, and School Avoidance

“…It is measured via indices of abilities to regulate attention, to persist, to delay, and to inhibit (or activate) behavior (Kochanska, Murray, & Harlan, 2000;Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Although effortful control is moderately heritable, parents who are positive and supportive can promote children's effortful control (e.g., Stormshak, Fosco, & Dishion, 2010); in fact, effortful control is significantly influenced by the environment (Lemery-Chalfant, Doelger, & Goldsmith, 2008). Some indices of effortful control (e.g., inhibitory control) are related to executive functioning, cognitive skills especially important for achievement (Carlson, 2005;Carlson & Wang, 2007); however, important distinctions have differentiated the two constructs (Blair & Razza, 2007;Zhou, Chen, & Main, 2011), including that effortful control is specifically a facet of temperament.…”