ArticlePsychological medicine2025
Developmental cascades linking executive functions with internalizing and externalizing problems in early childhood through early adolescence.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Optimal physical activity type and dosage for improving inhibitory control in children and adolescents: a dose-response network meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Executive functions as a transdiagnostic endophenotype in developmental psychopathology.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Joint Developmental Trajectories of Irritability and Executive Function: Associations with Time-varying Psychopathological Problems among Chinese Adolescents.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2026Article
- RDoC cognitive systems and emerging psychopathology: A latent variable analysis of teacher-reported psychosocial difficulties and executive function processes in young children.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Age-varying associations between parent-reported executive function and internalizing/externalizing problems in children with neurofibromatosis type 1: an integrative analysis of data from nine institutions.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2026Article
- Working memory and daily internalizing problems: Pubertal timing moderates adult relations.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDifficulties in executive functions (EFs) and internalizing and externalizing problems are prospectively related. However, it remains unclear whether the bidirectional relations between specific EF components and internalizing and externalizing problems at the within-person level vary across developmental stages in childhood and early adolescence.
methodsThis study utilized data from seven waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 (ECLS-K: 2011), following a nationally representative sample of 15,055 children (mean age at baseline = 5.63 years, SD = 0.37; age range = 4.02-7.83) from kindergarten through fifth grade. Internalizing and externalizing problems and inhibitory control were assessed using teacher-reported measures, while working memory and cognitive flexibility were evaluated using standardized cognitive tasks. Data were analyzed using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model, adjusting for the complex sampling design.
resultsWorking memory negatively predicted internalizing problems from kindergarten to first grade, with no significant link to externalizing problems. Cognitive flexibility showed limited effects, with only spring kindergarten externalizing problems predicting lower cognitive flexibility in first grade. Inhibitory control negatively predicted internalizing problems in early childhood, while internalizing problems positively predicted inhibitory control during the kindergarten-to-first-grade transition. Externalizing problems consistently reduced inhibitory control over time. Notably, inhibitory control negatively predicted externalizing problems until third grade but positively predicted them from third to fourth grade.
conclusionsThe findings suggest that while certain EFs can protect against internalizing and externalizing problems in early childhood, these symptoms may also influence EF development, with these interactions evolving as children transition into adolescence.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.