The Overcontrol in Youth Checklist (OCYC): Behavioral and Neural Validation of a Parent-Report of Child Overcontrol in Early Childhood

Abstract

Self-control is protective against psychopathology in childhood. However, too much self-control, namely overcontrol, potentiates risk. Overcontrol is a constellation of child characteristics related to high need for control, perfectionism, inflexibility, social comparison, and performance monitoring and is a transdiagnostic risk factor associated with psychiatric disorders across the lifespan. However, there are no quick and developmentally appropriate screeners to identify overcontrol in early childhood, when overconrol purportedly becomes stable. The current study validated the Overcontrol in Youth Checklist (OCYC) in 4-7 year old children and examined relationships with cognitive, social, and psychiatric, neural and behavioral indicators. The OCYC demonstrated good psychometrics and was associated with deficits in cognitive shifting, social functioning, and preschool psychopathology. Higher OCYC scores were associated with a blunted ΔERN, an indicator of performance monitoring in preschoolers. Findings demonstrate the OCYC to be a developmentally valid measure of overcontrol that identifies this transdiagnostic risk factor early in development.Terms of use and reuse: academic research for non-commercial purposes, see here for full terms. https://www.springer.com/aamterms-v1 *

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“…Another quick and initial strategy to assess overcontrol is through the use of questionnaires. Although the development of validated assessments of overcontrol is ongoing, there are available self-reported questionnaires for adults, 3 adolescents 40 and parents about their children 41 that can be used as an initial assessment. In adults, the Brief Overcontrol Scale demonstrates norms of dimensional overcontrol among males and females and ongoing work is testing clinical cut-offs.…”

“…Lastly, to identify early manifestations of overcontrol when it is first thought to become stable (agẽ 5-6 years) 43 the Overcontrol in Youth Checklist (OCYC) was developed. 41 The OCYC is a parent-reported assessment that demonstrates associations with elevated child behavioral inhibition, cognitive deficits, internalizing and externalizing symptoms and social functioning deficits, as well as neural aberrations in error monitoring. 41,44 It will be imperative for future work to not only assess dimensional overcontrol, but also to create standardized clinical cut-offs that identify when overcontrol becomes pathological.…”

“…Similarly, overcontrol in childhood is associated with many of the same outcomes as adults: social functioning problems such as withdrawal and loneliness as well as internalizing and anxiety symptoms. 41,48,49 Developmentally adapting RO DBT to young children and their caregivers may provide a window of opportunity to make a large impact, by targeting overcontrolled coping styles when they are more malleable for change and helping teach skills that could have lifelong impact.…”