Attentional control and executive functioning in school-aged children: Linking self-regulation and parenting strategies

Good parenting strategies can shape children’s neurocognitive development, yet little is known about the nature of this relation in school-aged children and whether this association shifts with age. We aimed to investigate the relation between parenting strategies observed during a home visit and children’s performance-based attentional control and executive functioning (N = 98, aged 4–8 years). Linear and curvilinear regression analyses showed that children of parents who were more supportive, were less intrusive, and asked more open-ended questions displayed better inhibitory control. In addition, children of parents who asked relatively more open-ended than closed-ended questions showed better performance on inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility tasks. Curvilinear relations indicated the presence of an optimal amount of closed-ended and elaborative questions by parents—that is, not too few and not too many—which is linked to increased performance on attentional and inhibitory control in children. Higher parental intrusiveness and more frequent elaborative questioning were associated with decreased inhibitory control in younger children, whereas no such negative associations were present in older children. These results suggest that susceptibility to certain parenting strategies may shift with age. Our findings underscore the importance of adaptive parenting strategies to both the age and needs of school-aged children, which may positively affect their self-regulation skills.Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting

In transition : a longitudinal exploration of the adolescent brain at risk for psychosis

The overall aim of this thesis was to detect potential neurobiological vulnerability markers for psychosis in adolescents putatively at risk for developing the disorder. This knowledge can be used to improve prediction and ultimately lead to improved early intervention. A longitudinal research design was used in which multiple brain imaging methods (structural magnetic resonance imaging, neurophysiological recordings) were assessed over a two-year period in young adolescents (12-18 years) at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis and typically developing adolescents. The following research aims were addressed: 1) determine the validity of UHR criteria in predicting the development of subsequent psychosis in a group of adolescent individuals; 2) explore whether UHR in adolescence is associated with a presence of neurobiological vulnerability markers before the onset of psychosis, as measured by structural MRI and neurophysiology; 3) explore whether neurobiological vulnerability markers become more apparent over time in UHR adolescents, in particular for those individuals who develop psychosis. The results showed that 15.6% of UHR adolescents made a transition to psychosis. However, the remission rate was about three times higher, rendering the predictive validity of the UHR paradigm currently insufficient to guide specialized early interventions. Furthermore, subtle neurobiological vulnerability markers may already be present in UHR adolescents and these are best identified within a longitudinal study design. While some markers may be more indicative of a general vulnerability for psychopathology (e.g., reduced prepulse inhibition, restricted white matter growth), others may be more specific to the actual transition to psychosis (e.g., increased cortical thinning). Future prediction models would benefit from multi-level, multi-method assessments to optimize identification of individuals with the highest need for intervention. In doing so, the aim should not be restricted to preventing the transition to an arbitrary threshold to psychosis, but rather focussed on long-term functional outcome

Confirmatory factor analysis of psychotic-like experiences in a general population sample.

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are sub-psychotic expressions of the psychosis continuum. Several studies have suggested multifactorial models, including a bifactor model, of the putative PLEs assessed with the popular Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE) questionnaire. Our confirmatory results in a gender-balanced population of adolescents and young adults support a three-factor Paranoia-Delusions-Hallucinations structure of PLEs, which excludes Grandiosity and Common Paranormal Beliefs. The best latent models achieved excellent fit when taking the categorical nature of the responses into consideration.Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting

The impact of behavioural executive functioning and intelligence on math abilities in children with intellectual disabilities

Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting