Links among adolescent executive function, effortful control and psychopathology

描述（由申请人提供）：认知控制过程调节较低水平的过程，从而使自我导向的行为朝着一个目标，使我们能够打破习惯，做出决定和评估风险，为未来计划，优先考虑和排序我们的行动，并科普新的情况。换句话说，认知控制对于成功驾驭我们几乎所有的日常活动至关重要。本研究旨在通过以下几个方面对认知控制的研究领域标准（RDoC）领域的知识做出创新性贡献：1）考察两种不同的认知控制评估方法，即执行功能任务绩效和努力控制的气质维度在多大程度上是同一潜在结构的可互换标记，或者是可分离的，但相关的潜在结构;（2）调查认知控制的程度，通过执行功能和努力控制的多个测量来概念化和评估，与青少年精神病理学（transdiagnosis）广泛相关或与常见形式的精神病理学症状（抑郁症、焦虑症、ADHD）相对特异。执行功能障碍现在被广泛认为是精神病理学的一个重要方面，包括抑郁症，焦虑症和ADHD，并且可能是社会，职业和教育功能障碍的重要因素。最近，有人提出，这种执行功能缺陷可能是一个transdiagnosis风险因素的情绪和行为障碍。同样，努力控制的气质维度也与精神病理学有关。然而，执行功能和努力控制之间的关系，以及这些结构的哪些方面驱动它们与精神病理学的关联，仍然不清楚。此外，关于青春期执行功能、努力控制和精神病理学之间的联系的研究很少。缺乏对青少年的研究是文献中的一个重要空白，因为青春期是执行功能发展的关键时期，自我调节的重要性增加，以及精神病理学轨迹的确定。因此，拟议中的研究使用方法论上的上级潜变量的方法来调查如何执行功能和努力控制在青少年中，以及它们是如何反过来与最常见的青少年精神病理学（抑郁症，焦虑症和多动症）。拟议的研究采用多方法，多信息的方法，使用电池的验证措施，以评估执行功能任务的性能和青少年自我和父母报告的努力控制和精神病理学症状。分析将使用验证性因素分析和结构方程模型，以测试这些结构之间的关系，在潜在变量水平。该提案将通过澄清这一重要RDoC构建的核心过程并将EF和EC的已知内容联系起来，从而为跨学科研究做出重大贡献，并回应该领域对可以更好地为未来翻译研究提供信息的综合模型的呼吁。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cognitive control processes regulate lower level processes and thereby enable self-directed behavior towards a goal, allowing us to break out of habits, make decisions and evaluate risks, plan for the future, prioritize and sequence our actions, and cope with novel situations. In other words, cognitive control is essential for successfully navigating nearly all of our daily activities. The proposed research seeks to make an innovative contribution to knowledge of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) domain of cognitive control by: 1) examining the extent to which two distinct ways of assessing cognitive control, executive function task performance and the temperament dimension of effortful control may be interchangeable markers of the same latent construct, or separable, but related latent constructs; and 2) investigate the extent to which cognitive control, as conceptualized and assessed by multiple measures of executive function and effortful control, is broadly related to adolescent psychopathology (transdiagnostic) or relatively specific to common forms of psychopathological symptoms (depression, anxiety, ADHD). Executive function impairments are now widely acknowledged as an important aspect of psychopathology, including depression, anxiety, and ADHD, and may be important contributors to impairments in social, occupational and educational functioning. Recently, it has been proposed that such executive function deficits may be a transdiagnostic risk factor for both emotional and behavioral disorders. Likewise, the temperament dimension of effortful control has also been linked to psychopathology. However, the relation between executive function and effortful control, and which aspects of these constructs drive their associations with psychopathology, remain unclear. In addition, there has been very little research on links among executive function, effortful control, and psychopathology during adolescence. Lack of research in adolescents is an important gap in the literature because adolescence is a critical period for the development of executive function, increased importance of self-regulation, and the determination of psychopathology trajectories. The proposed study thus uses a methodologically superior latent variable approach to investigate how executive function and effortful control are related in adolescents, and how they are in turn related to the most common forms of adolescent psychopathology (depression, anxiety and ADHD). The proposed research uses a multi-method, multi-informant approach, using a battery of well-validated measures to assess executive function task performance and adolescent self and parent reported effortful control and psychopathology symptoms. Analyses will use confirmatory factors analysis and structural equation modeling to test relations between these constructs at the latent variable level. This proposal will make a significant contribution t interdisciplinary research by clarifying the core processes of this important RDoC construct and linking what is known about EF and EC, answering calls in the field for an integrative model that can better inform future translational research.