| 1. |
- Babarro, Izaro, et al.
(author)
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Hair cortisol as a biomarker of chronic stress in preadolescents: influence of school context and bullying
- 2023
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In: Child Neuropsychology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0929-7049 .- 1744-4136. ; 29:5, s. 742-759
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Bullying has been identified as the most common form of aggression and a major source of stress among children and adolescents. The main objective of this study was to analyze the association that school context in general and bullying in particular might have with hair cortisol concentration (HCC), examining the effect of executive function and sex on this association. The study included 659 11-year-old preadolescents from the cohorts of Gipuzkoa and Sabadell of the INMA (INfancia y Medio Ambiente-Children and Environment) project. We gathered information about school-related factors (bullying, school environment, problems with peers and academic performance) and executive function (risky decision-making). Hair samples were collected to measure cortisol concentrations and Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine associations between school-related factors, executive function and HCC. Results showed that being involved as a bully/victim was related to higher HCC and, higher HCC was associated with poorer executive function. This study may contribute to a better understanding of the consequences that chronic exposure to a stressful factors may have on preadolescents' health and developmental outcomes. Besides, our results are relevant for designing programs for prevention and intervention, which could modify individual physiological responses to stress and reduce the effects of stress on the health.
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| 4. |
- Carelli, Maria Grazia, 1959-, et al.
(author)
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Sense of time and executive functioning in children and adults
- 2008
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In: Child Neuropsychology. - : Psychology Press, Taylor and Francis Group. - 0929-7049 .- 1744-4136. ; 14:4, s. 372-386
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A number of patient studies suggest that impairments in frontal lobe functions are associated with disorders in temporal information processing. One implication of these findings is that subjective experience of time should be related to executive functions regardless of etiology. In two experiments, we examined sense of time in relation to components of executive functioning in healthy children and adults. In Experiment 1, children between 8 to 12 years completed six experimental tasks that tapped three components of executive functioning: inhibition, updating, and mental shifting. Sense of time was examined in a duration judgment task in which participants reproduced stimulus durations between 4 to 32 s. In Experiment 2, adult participants completed the time reproduction task under varying concurrent task demands. Both experiments showed selective effects in that time reproduction errors were related to the inhibition and updating, but not to the shifting, components of executive functioning. However, the observed effects were modulated by task demands and age-related differences in cognitive competence. We conclude that individual differences in executive functioning are only weakly related to time reproduction performance in healthy children and adults.
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| 5. |
- Dahlman, Sofie, et al.
(author)
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Cognitive abilities of street children : Low-SES Bolivian boys with and without experience of living in the street
- 2013
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In: Child Neuropsychology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0929-7049 .- 1744-4136. ; 19:5, s. 540-556
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objectives: This study compared results on cognitive tests measuring nonverbal visualization and reasoning, executive functions, and creativity between 36 boys with experience of living in the street and 31 housed yet socioeconomically equivalent boys, in Bolivia. Results: The street children scored significantly higher on the creativity measure, which is discussed in relation to contextual relevance. No significant differences were found on the other cognitive tests. Time elapsed after living in the street and drug use were strongly associated with cognition, while age was not. Both groups scored below average compared to Western norms. The results are discussed in terms of the cultural relevance of the tests and the impact of socioeconomic status, stress, and stimulation on cognition.
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| 6. |
- Gillenstrand, Jonas, et al.
(author)
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Behavioural strengths and difficulties in relation to intellectual functions and age in Swedish boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy
- 2023
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In: Child Neuropsychology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0929-7049 .- 1744-4136. ; 29:6, s. 959-972
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this study was to describe behavioral strengths and difficulties in relation to intellectual function and age in boys with DMD. In a cross-sectional design, 70 boys with DMD were tested at 5, 8, 11, and 14 years of age (mean age 10y 5 m). Parental ratings of behavioral strengths and difficulties were studied in relation to age, intellectual function, motor function, and family socioeconomic status (SES). Results show a significant relation between behavioral strengths and difficulties and age with parents rating increasingly more difficulties (slightly higher, higher and very high) from 5 years (11.1%) to 9 years (30.8%) and 11 years (78.9%) of age and then fewer difficulties at 14 years (50%) of age. Working Memory Index (WMI) explained significant variance in SDQ-Total-Score (17.5%) and SDQ-Impact-Score (11.2%). WMI together with upper motor function explained 19.5% variance in SDQ-Hyperactivity and 19.7% in SDQ-Peer-Problems. Age and SES explained an 18.9% variance in SDQ-Emotional-Problems. Age is an important factor when analyzing behavioral strengths and difficulties for boys with DMD. The development of boys with DMD needs to be understood in the context of expected developmental trajectory as well as in the decline of psychical functioning. Our study supports that age, cognition, motor function, and family SES all contribute to how behavioral strengths and difficulties evolves in boys with DMD.
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| 7. |
- Granvald, Viktor, et al.
(author)
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Relations between key executive functions and aggression in childhood
- 2016
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In: Child Neuropsychology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0929-7049 .- 1744-4136. ; 22:5, s. 537-555
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The present study examined relationships between three key executive functions (working memory, inhibition, and mental set-shifting) and multiple types of aggression in a general population sample of 9-year-old children. One hundred and forty-eight children completed a battery of executive function tasks and were rated on aggression by their primary teachers. All executive function (EF) composites were related to a composite measure of aggression. Working memory (WM) was most consistently related to the different types of aggression (overt, relational, reactive, and proactive), whereas inhibition and mental set-shifting only were related to relational and reactive aggression, respectively. Specificity in relations (studied as independent contributions) was generally low with the exception of the relation between WM and relational aggression. Taken together, our results highlight the roles of WM and relational aggression in EF-aggression relations in middle childhood.
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| 8. |
- Kljajić, Marizela, et al.
(author)
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Sustained attention and vigilance of children treated for sagittal and metopic craniosynostosis.
- 2020
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In: Child neuropsychology : a journal on normal and abnormal development in childhood and adolescence. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1744-4136. ; 26:4, s. 475-488
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Attention problems are common in patients with craniosynostosis. Craniosynostosis is a rare condition, studies face challenges of selection bias, small sample sizes, and wide age ranges. The aim of the study was to assess the sustained attention and vigilance of children treated for sagittal and metopic craniosynostosis. To reduce selection bias, we included children that had previously undergone surgery for craniosynostosis, were between 8 and 16years, and lived close to the craniofacial centre. The Connors Continuous Performance Test (3rd edition) was used to measure sustained attention and vigilance (n =61; response rate: 76.3%). Attrition analysis revealed no differences between responding and non-responding groups regarding background variables. One identified difference between the SS (n =28) and MS (n =23) groups involved significantly better performance by the SS group in the hit-reaction time (HRT) test relative to the MS group (p<0.05). Compared with the norms, the SS group showed significantly worse response style, detectability, omissions, commissions, perseverations, HRT response speed (HRT-SD), HRT inter-stimulus interval change (HRT-iC) (p<0.01 for all), and variability (p<0.05). The MS group showed significantly worse detectability, HRT-SD, variability (p<0.01 for all), commissions, perseverations and HRT-iC (p<0.05 for all) as compared with norms. No differences regarding attention was detected for the two different surgical techniques used for correction of sagittal synostosis. There were shortcomings in sustained attention and vigilance as compared with the norms in the SS and MS groups, although the deviations were small.
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| 9. |
- Lindgren, Magnus, et al.
(author)
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Event-related potential findings in healthy extremely pre-term (
- 2000
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In: Child Neuropsychology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1744-4136 .- 0929-7049. ; 6:2, s. 77-86
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ten healthy extremely pre-term (EPT) children, born before gestational week 29, were tested at age 10 using mismatch negativity (MMN) and a three-tone odd-ball task; the results were then compared to age-matched full-term controls. We found no difference in MMN. By contrast, EPT children had generally shorter N1 latencies and larger P2 amplitudes, possibly indicating a more stimulus-driven response mode. However, P300 parameters, indicative of controlled attention, were unaffected.
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| 10. |
- Lindqvist, Sofia, et al.
(author)
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Brief Report : Manipulation of Task Difficulty in Inhibitory Control Tasks
- 2009
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In: Child Neuropsychology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0929-7049 .- 1744-4136. ; 15:1, s. 1-7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The present study investigated how task difficulty can be manipulated in inhibitory control tasks. Tasks from three widely used task paradigms a Go/No-Go task, a Stop-Signal task, and a Flanker task were manipulated on two parameters each (Go/No-Go task: interstimulus interval, prepotency. Stop-signal task: stop-signal-delay, prepotency. Flanker task: number of distractors, size of target stimulus). Participants were 86 children (age 4-6) from a population-based sample. The results showed no significant effects on the Go/No-Go task but both main and interaction effects on the Stop-Signal task and the Flanker task. Together, these findings indicate that task difficulty can be successfully manipulated in inhibitory control tasks. However, the interactive rather than additive effects on performance suggest that the level of one parameter only has the desired effect under certain conditions. This new information about how to manipulate task difficulty is important when adapting tasks for use with children of different ages, as well as when designing training programs for improving inhibitory control among children with ADHD.
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