Inhibition and individual differences in behavior and emotional regulation in adolescence.

The Impulsivity/Reflexivity issue in inhibitory control ability has seldom been investigated in terms of individual differences in typically developing populations. Although there is evidence of changes in executive functioning (EF), including inhibition, in adolescence, very little is known about the role of individual differences. Using the data from 240 14-to-19-year-old high school students who completed a battery of EF tasks (Flanker, Go No-Go, Antisaccade, and Stop signal task), measures of emotion regulation strategies and behavioral difficulties, we performed a latent profile analysis to identify qualitatively distinct score profiles. The results showed the existence in adolescence of two inhibition profiles, Impulsive vs Reflexive, differing in performances at the inhibition tasks. The two profiles were not associated with socio-demographic characteristics, or to psychological variables, such as behavioral characteristics and emotional regulation strategies.

Attention Components and Spelling Accuracy: Which Connections Matter?

Attention and working memory are cross-domain functions that regulate both behavioural and learning processes. Few longitudinal studies have focused on the impact of these cognitive resources on spelling skills in the early phase of learning to write. This longitudinal study investigates the contributions of attention and working memory processes to spelling accuracy and handwriting speed in 112 primary school children (2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade; age range: 7.6-9.4 years) learning to write in the Italian transparent orthography. Standardised batteries were used to assess their attention and working memory skills, as well as their spelling. Homophone and non-homophone errors were measured, as they may involve different attentional and working memory processes. The results showed that, for 2nd grade children, selective attention shifting, planning, and inhibition predicted non-homophone errors, whereas sequential working memory predicted homophone errors and writing speed was explained by planning and selective attention. In 3rd grade, only homophone errors were predicted by planning and inhibition. No significant relationships were found in 4th grade, nor in the transition across grades. Dynamic and diversified roles of attentional and working memory processes in predicting different writing skills in early primary school years emerged, with a gradual decrease in the attention-writing relationship with age.

Difficulty in Writing Perceived by University Students: A Comparison of Inaccurate Writers with and without Diagnostic Certification.

Research has shown that academic success is strongly associated with positive academic self-efficacy beliefs and that individuals with learning disabilities (LDs) usually report a lower perception of competence than their peers in most learning domains. The aim of this study was two-fold: (1) To compare the performance of inaccurate writers who were not diagnosed with an LD with that of students who were diagnosed with an LD, in order to identify which tasks were the most challenging for individuals with LDs, and (2) to investigate whether inaccurate writers with and without a diagnosis differ in terms of self-perceived difficulties. Two groups were selected from a total sample of 639 students attending seven Italian universities: The first group included 48 participants (24 females) with scores on writing tasks below the 5th percentile, and the second included 51 participants (24 females) who were diagnosed with an LD. The results showed that the two groups significantly differed in the articulatory suppression condition tasks, but not in the standard condition tasks. When groups were matched for performance on writing tasks, students who were diagnosed with an LD reported significantly more perceived difficulties than students without an LD. The implications of these results in terms of the self-efficacy beliefs of students with an LD are discussed.

Cognitive and emotional regulation in adolescents and young women with eating disorders.

BACKGROUND: Eating disorders (EDs) are associated with a reduced ability to regulate emotion and impulses during the life span. Working memory and executive functions (EFs) are cognitive regulatory systems supported by networks involving the pre-frontal cortex. Studies in EDs found impaired functioning in these domains, showing an association between EDs and the reduced ability to control emotions and impulses. OBJECTIVE: To investigate EF in adolescents and young women with eating disorders (ED) using a quasi-experimental design, focusing on cognitive efficiency, emotional regulation (ER) and behavioural outcomes also taking into account pharmacological treatment and duration of illness. METHODS: A sample of 151 females belonging to two groups took part in this study. Twenty-six girls and young women (Mage 22;8 years) with ED and 125 typically developed girls and young women (Mage 17;4 years) completed a battery of cognitive tasks (Go-no-go, Stop-signal task, Symmetry span, Reading Span) and the Youth Self-Report and the Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale Performance. A series of ANOVA with the Brown-Forsythe test was used to compare the groups. RESULTS: Participants with ED and controls did not show significant differences in EF tasks, whereas differences between younger and older participants with ED emerged. Moreover, ER difficulties seem to be associated with mainly internalizing problems in EDs. Further analysis on the full ED sample did not reveal any significant differences associated with the disorder persistence. Considering pharmacological treatment effects over cognitive, emotional and behavioural measures emerged. CONCLUSIONS: The present study documented no specific differences in EF between control and participants with EDs, whereas important differences emerged in ER and behavioural outcomes perception in the clinical sample, together with a partial influence of pharmacological treatment. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: No level of evidence.

WM in Adolescence: What Is the Relationship With Emotional Regulation and Behavioral Outcomes?

Adolescence is a fundamental transition phase, marked by physical, social, cognitive and emotional changes. At this stage in development two contrasting phenomena take place: brain changes cause a sensitivity to emotional aspects (Dahl, 2004); while also control processes register as well impressive improvements (e.g., Hooper et al., 2004; Best and Miller, 2010). The study is aimed to investigate the relationship between a core cognitive feature such as working memory (WM) (Diamond, 2013) and complex abilities such as emotion regulation (ER) and behavioral self-reported outcomes using a structural equation model approach. A sample of 227 typically developed adolescents between 14 and19 years of age (148 females; mean age in months 202.8, SD 18.57) participated in this study. The following tasks and self-reports were administered in a 45-min test session at school: Symmetry Span task (Kane et al., 2004). Reading Span task (Daneman and Carpenter, 1980), Mr. Cucumber (Case, 1985); Youth Self-Report (YSR, 11-18 years, Achenbach and Rescorla, 2001); Difficulties ER Scale (DERS, Gratz and Roemer, 2004; Italian version by Giromini et al., 2012). Results showed that difficulties in ER correlated with WM: high levels of ER difficulties are associated with low WM efficiency while no significant contributions of these predictors was observed on externalizing or internalizing symptoms. This study showed a significant relationship between self-reported difficulties in ER and WM, while no significant contribution of the considered predictors was showed on the outcomes, adding knowledge about how behavioral and emotional self-reported outcomes may relate to these processes.