Emotion regulation mediates the relationship between verbal learning and internalizing, trauma-related and externalizing symptoms among early-onset, persistently delinquent adolescents

Publication date: Available online 14 February 2017Source: Learning and Individual DifferencesAuthor(s): Amy E. Lansing, Wendy Y. Plante, Shahrokh Golshan, Christine Fennema-Notestine, Sandrine ThuretAbstractResearch supports cascading relationships among internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and academic problems. This constellation of problems is characteristic of early-onset, persistent delinquent [EOPD] youth, and appropriately targeted interventions accounting for this comorbidity may improve outcomes. To investigate these relationships in EOPD youth, we characterized their cross-diagnostic psychopathology and verbal (word-list) learning/memory and evaluated: 1) verbal learning/memory profiles of Withdrawn/Depressed relative to Non-Withdrawn/Depressed youth; 2) cognitive and psychiatric predictors of verbal learning; and 3) emotion regulation as a mediator of psychiatric and cognitive relationships. Results indicated Withdrawn/Depressed youth recalled significantly fewer words during immediate, and some delayed, recall conditions. Less word-learning was predicted by: Withdrawn/Depressed classification, higher trauma-specific re-experiencing symptoms, greater emotion dysregulation, weaker executive skills, fewer trauma-avoidance and aggressive symptoms, and earlier alcohol-use onset. Emotion regulation strongly mediated the relationship between verbal learning and psychopathology, but not other cognitive skills, among these youth at high-risk for school dropout. Menta...
Source: Learning and Individual Differences - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research