Iowa Gambling Task performance and executive function predict low-income urban preadolescents’ risky behaviors

Abstract

This study examines preadolescents’ reports of risk-taking as predicted by two different, but related inhibitory control systems involving sensitivity to reward and loss on the one hand, and higher order processing in the context of cognitive conflict, known as executive functioning (EF), on the other. Importantly, this study examines these processes with a sample of inner-city, low-income preadolescents and as such examines the ways in which these processes may be related to risky behaviors as a function of children's levels of both concurrent and chronic exposure to household poverty. As part of a larger longitudinal study, 382 children (ages 9 -11) provided a self-report of risky behaviors and participated in the Iowa Gambling task, assessing bias for infrequent loss (preference for infrequent, high magnitude versus frequent, low magnitude loss) and the Hearts and Flowers task assessing executive functioning. Results demonstrated that a higher bias for infrequent loss was associated with higher risky behaviors for children who demonstrated lower EF. Furthermore, bias for infrequent loss was most strongly associated with higher risk-taking for children facing highest levels of poverty. Implications for early identification and prevention of risk-taking in inner-city preadolescents are discussed.

The Relationship between Self-Reported Executive Functioning and Risk-Taking Behavior in Urban Homeless Youth

“…Additionally, a consideration is raised regarding the reasons for using substances more readily; those youth using at a higher level endorsed having much lower capacity for behavioral inhibition skills, including impulse control and the capacity to regulate emotional experience. This supports previous findings in the literature regarding the association of low EF and greater risk behavior, and highlights the need for further investigation into patterns of use and reasons for risk behavior choices among these homeless adolescents and emerging adults [ 37 , 38 , 39 ]. Considerations for rates of use and reasons for using during riskier behavioral choices may reflect efforts at self-regulation through substances, or cognitive deficiencies regarding decision-making, or an interrelationship between these possible responses within a broader contextual milieu of poverty and trauma.…”

Bi‐directional relations between behavioral problems and executive function: Assessing the longitudinal development of self‐regulation

“…Leveraging data from the Chicago School Readiness Project, we extended previous work that has examined the development of selfregulation in a sample of racially and ethnically minoritized children growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods in Chicago (Li-Grining et al, 2019;McCoy et al, 2018;Raver et al, 2013;Ursache & Raver, 2015). Our study also builds on recently published work by Schmitt et al (2021), which explored a similar model examining bi-directional relations between directly-assessed self-regulation and measures of behavioral problems and social skills during early childhood.…”

A Personalidade na Tomada de Decisão com o Iowa Gambling Task: Uma Revisão Integrativa

“…No entanto, esses resultados podem ser influenciados pela inteligência cognitiva, mais que a emocional (Webb, DelDonno, & Killgore, 2014), e pela idade em que é realizada a avaliação (Icellioglu & Ozden, 2012). Nesse caso, por exemplo, a adolescência e o envelhecimento são períodos marcados por comportamentos de risco e de externalização diferenciados (Hooper et al, 2008;Nguyen et al, 2013), sendo estes condicionados por variáveis socioeconômicas (Ursache, & Raver, 2015). De qualquer modo, esses comportamentos de risco e externalização tendem a associar-se a elevados níveis de neuroticismo (Heaven, Newbury, & Mak, 2004), constituindo, particularmente no sexo masculino, um preditor significativo do desempenho no IGT (Hooper et al, 2008), eventualmente devido ao impacto dos afetos negativos na tomada de decisão (Bagneux, Font, & Bollon, 2013;Mardaga & Hansenne, 2015).…”