Executive Function Development in Preschool Children

学龄前儿童的执行功能发展

• 批准号: 8150729
• 负责人: KIMBERLY Andrews ESPY
• 金额: $ 4.79万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA LINCOLN
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-04-01 至 2014-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8150729
• 关键词: Academic achievement; Achievement; Adult; Age; Aggressive behavior; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Attitude; Behavior; Characteristics; Child; Childhood; Cognitive; Development; Diagnostic Procedure; Diamond; Disease; Early identification; Education; Equation; Exercise; Exhibits; Figs - dietary; Fostering; Functional disorder; Funding; Future; Goals; Growth; Home environment; Hyperactive behavior; Impulsivity; Individual; Individual Differences; Intervention; Knowledge; Learning; Light; Longevity; Mathematics; Measures; Mediating; Medical; Medicine; Meditation; Mental Health; Mental Processes; Mental disorders; Methods; Modeling; Motivation; National Institute of Mental Health; Nature; Neurosciences; Nursery Schools; Outcome; Outcome Measure; Parenting behavior; Parents; Participant; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Persons; Phase; Play; Preschool Child; Preventive Intervention; Process; Psychometrics; Psychopathology; Reading; Research; Research Personnel; Risk; Role; Sampling; School-Age Population; Social Functioning; Social Interaction; Social skills development; Socioeconomic Status; Statistical Methods; Strategic Planning; Structure; Subgroup; System; Testing; Time; United States National Institutes of Health; Variant; Work; base; clinical application; cohort; design; elementary school; executive function; expectation; experience; falls; flexibility; functional outcomes; improved; inattention; indexing; innovation; meetings; neurodevelopment; novel diagnostics; peer; person centered; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; sex; skills; social; social skills; success; teacher; theories

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One central tenet of "personalized medicine" is to be able to predict who is at risk for later medical conditions, including mental illness (NIH, 2007). To transform our knowledge of the origins, mechanisms, and processes that contribute to later dysfunction, the National Advisory Mental Health Council (2007) has called for increased longitudinal, "trajectory-based" studies that include "sensitive, malleable periods of neurodevelopment" to meet Objectives 1 and 2 of the new NIMH Strategic Plan. With recent methodological advances that have shed light on developmental pathways toward childhood psychopathology, there is a pressing need reflected in PA07-158 to identify specific precursors to improve early identification and intervention. Executive control (EC) is a strong candidate precursor for childhood externalizing disorders (including ADHD), although two challenges have hampered progress: 1) lack of a precise definition of EC and 2) inadequate understanding of how EC contributes to later functional outcomes. In this past funding period, we have made substantial progress in defining EC in preschool children by using sophisticated statistical methods to empirically determine the best fitting, theoretically derived model. The objective of this renewal application, then, is to elucidate how precursor EC relates to later functional outcome, the next translational step towards clinical application. Participants will be the large, carefully, longitudinally (every 9 months, 3-0 to 5-3 years) sampled preschool cohort (half are at sociodemographic risk) who will enter grades 1 or 2 in fall 2009-2011. Multi-method assessments of functional outcome in spring grades 1-4 will be conducted, focusing on externalizing problems (impulsivity/hyperactivity, inattention, defiance, and aggression), social skills (sensitivity, responsibility, and peer relationships), academic skills (mathematics and reading achievement), and mastery problems (poor motivation, persistence, strategy use). The cohort is on the cusp of a key 5->7 shift, the developmental transition characterized by a substantial increase in adult expectations for goal-directed thought, sustained independent work, adaptive relationships and social functioning. In this 5->7 shift, elementary school is the central context where these increased expectations challenge or "press" the child to deploy executive control to successfully manage this transition, a key factor in later functional success. Structural equation modeling will be used to test the a priori direct and meditation relations among preschool executive control, behavior in the 5->7 shift, and functional outcome. To pinpoint who is at greater risk for poor outcome, cutting-edge, person-centered growth mixture modeling will be conducted to identify latent subgroups of preschool children with poor EC development and then to compare later functional outcome and examine the contribution of responsive parenting. Characterizing the nature of executive control in the preschool period and how it relates to trajectories of later functional outcome will elucidate the fundamental mechanisms that go awry in childhood psychopathology and identify precursors for use in future work to tailor preventive interventions to those who stand to benefit most. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Identifying early precursors in pathways to later dysfunction is critical to enhance preventive interventions in the longer term. Executive control plays a fundamental, and perhaps causal, role in externalizing problems and related adverse social and academic outcomes, and therefore is a strong candidate for translational use in early identification. Understanding the longitudinal relations of preschool executive control and functional outcome in grades 1-4, and characterizing putative mechanisms in a large, well-characterized cohort who range in sociodemographic risk, will elucidate important developmental pathways towards psychopathology.

描述（由申请人提供）：“个性化医疗”的核心原则之一是能够预测谁有可能患上以后的健康状况，包括精神疾病（NIH，2007）。为了转变我们对导致以后功能障碍的起源、机制和过程的认识，国家心理健康咨询委员会（2007）呼吁增加纵向的、“基于轨迹的”研究，其中包括“神经发育的敏感的、可塑的时期”，以满足新的 NIMH 战略计划的目标 1 和 2。最近的方法学进展揭示了儿童精神病理学的发展途径，PA07-158 反映出迫切需要确定特定的前兆，以改善早期识别和干预。执行控制（EC）是儿童外化障碍（包括多动症）的一个强有力的候选前兆，尽管有两个挑战阻碍了进展：1）缺乏对 EC 的精确定义；2）对 EC 如何促进以后的功能结果了解不足。在过去的资助期间，我们通过使用复杂的统计方法凭经验确定最合适的理论推导模型，在定义学龄前儿童 EC 方面取得了实质性进展。那么，这一更新申请的目的是阐明前体 EC 与后来的功能结果（临床应用的下一个转化步骤）之间的关系。参与者将是大规模、仔细、纵向（每 9 个月，3-0 至 5-3 年）抽样的学前群体（一半面临社会人口风险），他们将在 2009-2011 年秋季进入 1 或 2 年级。对春季 1-4 年级的功能结果进行多方法评估，重点关注外化问题（冲动/多动、注意力不集中、反抗和攻击性）、社交技能（敏感性、责任感和同伴关系）、学术技能（数学）和阅读成绩），​​以及掌握问题（动力不足、坚持不懈、策略使用）。该群体正处于关键的 5->7 转变的风口浪尖，这一发展转变的特点是成年人对目标导向思维、持续独立工作、适应性关系和社会功能的期望大幅增加。在这个 5->7 的转变中，小学是中心环境，这些增加的期望挑战或“迫使”孩子部署执行控制以成功管理这一转变，这是以后功能成功的关键因素。结构方程模型将用于测试学前执行控制、5->7 转变中的行为和功能结果之间的先验直接关系和冥想关系。为了查明谁的不良结局风险更大，我们将进行尖端的、以人为中心的混合生长模型，以确定 EC 发育不良的学龄前儿童的潜在亚组，然后比较以后的功能结果并检查响应性养育的贡献。描述学龄前时期执行控制的本质以及它如何与后来的功能结果轨迹相关，将阐明儿童精神病理学中出错的基本机制，并确定在未来工作中使用的前兆，为那些最受益的人制定预防性干预措施。公共卫生相关性：识别后来功能障碍途径中的早期前兆对于加强长期预防干预至关重要。执行控制在问题外化以及相关的不良社会和学术结果中发挥着基础性的、或许是因果性的作用，因此是早期识别中转化应用的有力候选者。了解学前执行控制和 1-4 年级功能结果的纵向关系，并描述一个具有社会人口风险的大型、特征明确的群体中的假定机制，将阐明精神病理学的重要发展途径。