Preterm Toddlers' Inhibitory Control Abilities Predict Attention Regulation and Academic Achievement at Age 8 Years

Abstract

Original citation: Jaekel, Julia, Eryigit-Madzwamuse, Suna and Wolke, Dieter. (2015) Preterm toddlers' inhibitory control abilities predict attention regulation and academic achievement at age 8 years. The Journal of Pediatrics .doi: 10.1016Pediatrics .doi: 10. /j.jpeds.2015 Permanent WRAP url: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/74456 Copyright and reuse:The Warwick Research Archive Portal (WRAP) makes this work by researchers of the University of Warwick available open access under the following conditions. Copyright © and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable the material made available in WRAP has been checked for eligibility before being made available.Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-forprofit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. Study design. 558 children born at 26-41 weeks gestation were studied as part of a prospective geographically defined longitudinal investigation in Germany. Toddlers' inhibitory control abilities were observed at age 20 months. At 8 years, attention and academic abilities were assessed.Results. The lower children's gestational age, the lower their inhibitory control and the more likely they had poor attention regulation and low academic achievement. Adverse effects of preterm birth on attention and academic outcomes were partially mediated by toddlers' inhibitory control abilities.Conclusion. These findings of early inhibitory control abilities provide new information about the mechanisms linking preterm birth with long-term attention difficulties and academic underachievement.

The association of infant crying, feeding, and sleeping problems and inhibitory control with attention regulation at school age

“…The consistent finding across both models was that later childhood attention regulation difficulties were predicted by a cascade of early markers of dysregulation, that is, multiple and persistent crying, feeding, and sleeping problems and poorer cognitive and self‐regulatory abilities. These results concur with previous findings linking both early crying, feeding, and sleeping problems (Bernier et al., ; Hemmi et al., ; Sadeh et al., ; Schmid & Wolke, ; Sivertsen et al., ; Williams & Sciberras, ) and inhibitory control (Campbell & von Stauffenberg, ; Jaekel et al., ) with subsequent deficits in children's attention regulation abilities, which may last into adulthood (Bilgin et al., ). Overall, the results suggest some validity of a previously proposed developmental cascade model, with crying, feeding, and sleeping problems (Schmid & Wolke, ; Winsper & Wolke, ) and poor inhibitory control being early markers of a trajectory of dysregulated behavior for at least some children by the time they start school.…”

“…Overall, the results suggest some validity of a previously proposed developmental cascade model, with crying, feeding, and sleeping problems (Schmid & Wolke, ; Winsper & Wolke, ) and poor inhibitory control being early markers of a trajectory of dysregulated behavior for at least some children by the time they start school. As a result, in addition to attention deficits, these children may face further problems, for example, conduct disorder, learning difficulties, lower academic achievement, and social exclusion (Campbell & von Stauffenberg, ; Jaekel et al., ; Mischel et al., ; Olson et al., ). Nevertheless, our Model 2 strongly suggests that more general early cognitive abilities may explain most of the underlying individual variation and risk.…”

Developmental cascades of social inhibition and friendships in preterm and full‐term children

“…Findings of the current study support evidence of the impact of low gestation on children's inhibitory control (Jaekel et al, ) and indicate that deficits in early self‐regulatory abilities may precede poor social functioning with peers. Consistent with prior research on normative samples, the current study suggests that children with poor inhibitory control have more problems in peer relationships (Dollar, Stifter, & Buss, ; Holmes, Kim‐Spoon, & Deater‐Deckard, ; Rotenberg et al, ).…”

Behavioral problems are associated with cognitive and language scores in toddlers born extremely preterm

“…For example, anxiety, attention deficits, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors negatively affect a child’s ability to concentrate and attend to tasks, especially as tasks become more difficult and potentially frustrating [6]. Early demonstration of executive function difficulties among extremely preterm born children has been associated with challenges in subsequent academic skills [7]. …”