Abstract
Although both executive functions and internalizing symptoms go through important changes during adolescence, the role of executive functions in internalizing symptoms is unclear. Based on developmental cascade models of psychopathology, this study aimed to fill this gap by studying the bidirectional predictive relationship between executive functions (cognitive flexibility and selective attention) and symptoms of depression and social anxiety. A sample of 698 adolescents (40.8% girls) between 12 and 17 years of age (M = 14.59, SD = 1.36) participated in three waves over 1 year. They completed measures of executive functions and internalizing symptoms. Depressive symptoms predicted deficits in executive functions. Conversely, social anxiety symptoms predicted an improvement in cognitive flexibility. These results suggest that executive function deficits are not a risk factor for the development of depressive symptoms but a consequence of them, and there are specific patterns of associations for depressive and social anxiety symptoms.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the schools and adolescents who participated in the study. Moreover, thank the Deusto Stress Research team, from University of Deusto, for their collaboration in data collection.
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A.M. collaborated with the design of the study, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared the tables, and revised the references; E.C. designed the study, collaborated with the writing of the study, analyzed the data, and wrote part of the results. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.
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This research was supported by a grant from the Training of Research Personal of the University of Deusto (Bilbao, Spain) and from the Government of the Basque Country, Spain (Ref. IT982-16).
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Morea, A., Calvete, E. Cognitive Flexibility and Selective Attention’s Associations with Internalizing Symptoms in Adolescents: Are they Reciprocal?. J Youth Adolescence 50, 921–934 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01402-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01402-6