Investigating risk factor and consequence accounts of executive functioning impairments in psychopathology: an 8-year study of at-risk individuals in Brazil

Abstract Background Executive functioning (EF) impairments are widely known to represent transdiagnostic risk factors of psychopathology. However, a recent alternative account has been proposed, according to which EF impairments emerge as consequences of psychopathology. Methods Using a longitudinal cross-lagged panel network analysis approach, we tested these competing theoretical accounts at different stages during adolescence. We used data from the Brazilian High-Risk Cohort Study for the Development of Childhood Psychiatric Disorders, in which 61% of individuals at wave 1 were selected due to their high risk for psychopathology. Participants were assessed across three assessment waves during early (wave 1: n = 1,992, mean age = 10.20 years) and middle adolescence (wave 2: n = 1,633, mean age = 13.48 years; wave 3: n = 1,439, mean age = 18.20 years). We examined associations between working memory, inhibitory control, and broad-band measures of psychopathology. Results During early adolescence, lower inhibitory control was a risk factor for externalizing problems that, in turn, predicted lower working memory capacity. During middle adolescence, bidirectional associations became more prominent: inhibitory control and working memory functioned as both risk factors and consequences. Externalizing problems both predicted and were predicted by poor inhibitory control. Internalizing and externalizing symptoms showed bidirectional associations over time. Externalizing problems predicted more internalizing symptoms, whereas internalizing symptoms predicted fewer externalizing problems during middle adolescence. Conclusions Our results corroborate dynamic theories that describe executive dysfunctions as precursors and consequences of psychopathology in middle adolescence.