Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33971502›Full record

ArticleJournal of adolescence2021

Executive function as a mechanism linking socioeconomic status to internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in children and adolescents.

Elizabeth A McNeilly, Matthew Peverill, Jiwon Jung, Katie A McLaughlin

Open access · greenAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of adolescence, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed
4.4field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
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  4. Prenatal Adversity and Neonatal Brain Connectivity Relate to Emerging Executive Function at Age 2 Years.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.

Elizabeth A McNeillyDepartment of Psychology, University of Oregon, USA. Electronic address: emcneill@uoregon.edu.
Matthew PeverillDepartment of Psychology, University of Washington, USA.
Jiwon JungDepartment of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
Katie A McLaughlinDepartment of Psychology, Harvard University, USA.
Harvard University · USUniversity of California, Los Angeles · USUniversity of Oregon · USUniversity of Washington · US

Funding

Child Trauma and the Development of Neural Systems Underlying Emotion RegulationR01MH103291 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · PI MCLAUGHLIN, KATIE · 2014 to 2018
$3.8M
Deprivation and Threat: Dimensions of Early Experience and Neural DevelopmentR01MH106482 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · PI MCLAUGHLIN, KATIE · 2016 to 2020
$3.1M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH103291NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH106482
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThe association between low socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood and increased risk for psychopathology is well established, but the mechanisms explaining this relationship are poorly understood. Here, we investigate the potential role of difficulties in executive functioning (EF) as a mechanism linking childhood and adolescent SES with externalizing and internalizing psychopathology.

methodsWe examined whether difficulties with EF mediated the association between SES and externalizing and internalizing psychopathology in two cross-sectional samples of children and adolescents (Study 1: N = 94, ages 6-18, 51.1% male; Study 2: N = 259, ages 8-16, 54.1% male) from diverse SES backgrounds in the United States. EF was measured through behavioral tasks and parent-reported behavioral regulation (BR).

resultsIn both samples, children and adolescents from lower SES families were more likely to experience both externalizing and internalizing psychopathology than youth from more advantaged backgrounds and exhibited greater EF difficulties - they had lower performance on a task measuring inhibitory control and lower parent-rated BR. Reduced inhibitory control and BR, in turn, were associated with higher externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. In Study 1, difficulties with BR mediated the association of low-SES with both externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. In Study 2, low inhibitory control mediated the association between low-SES and externalizing psychopathology. These findings largely persisted after adjusting for exposure to violence, a form of adversity that is common in children from low-SES backgrounds.

conclusionsThese findings suggest that reduced EF may be an underlying mechanism through which low-SES confers risk for psychopathology in children and adolescents.

Indexed as

Executive FunctionMental DisordersAdolescentChildCross-Sectional StudiesFemaleHumansMalePsychopathologySocial ClassChild/adolescentExecutive functionExternalizing disordersInternalizing disordersSocioeconomic status

Identifiers

PMID33971502
PMCPMC8203104
OpenAlexW3161652577

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.