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Attention Problems as a Mediator of the Relation between Executive Function and Social Problems in a Child and Adolescent Outpatient Sample

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Abstract

Social functioning is critical for the successful navigation of everyday life for children, adolescents, and adults. Recent theories have postulated a neuropsychological basis for social functioning with particularly strong links with the executive functioning (EF) system. The current study examined attention problems as a mediator between EF (e.g., working memory, planning, and response inhibition) and social functioning in a child and adolescent outpatient sample. Participants were 218 children ages 6–16 (M = 10.23; SD = 2.52; 68.8 % males) who were referred to an outpatient clinic for psychoeducational assessment. Bias-corrected bootstrapping mediation analyses were used to examine the hypothesized models. The effects of working memory and planning (but not response inhibition) on social problems were mediated by attention problems in both teacher- and mother-reported models. These findings also held up in cross-source models (e.g., mother-reported attention problems as a mediator in a model predicting teacher-reported social problems). These findings have implications for dimensional models of social functioning and conceptual models for specific clinical populations (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder).

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Notes

  1. Due to the current lack of specificity in how EF may affect social interaction, the words aptitude, functioning, skill, competence, etc. are used interchangeably throughout this paper to refer to the general ability to engage successfully with others in a social milieu.

  2. For clarification, higher scores on Digit Span and the Copy score of the Rey-O indicate stronger abilities in those areas, whereas higher scores on mother- and teacher-reported attention problems and social problems indicate more difficulty. The direction of the relationships herein is a result of these differences.

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  1. Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama, Box 870348, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, USA

    Dane C. Hilton, Matthew A. Jarrett & Kristina L. McDonald

  2. Department of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 460 Turner Street, Suite 207, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Thomas H. Ollendick

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Hilton, D.C., Jarrett, M.A., McDonald, K.L. et al. Attention Problems as a Mediator of the Relation between Executive Function and Social Problems in a Child and Adolescent Outpatient Sample. J Abnorm Child Psychol 45, 777–788 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0200-6

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