Neurocognitive Correlates of Rumination Risk in Children: Comparing Competing Model Predictions in a Clinically Heterogeneous Sample.

This study aimed to (a) extend current conceptual models of rumination to youth, (b) clarify disparate model predictions regarding working memory updating ("updating"), inhibition, and shifting abilities, and (c) examine differential neurocognitive predictions between two forms of rumination, sadness and anger. One hundred and fifty-nine youths oversampled for ADHD and other forms of child psychopathology associated with executive dysfunction (aged 8-13; 53.5% male; 59.1% Caucasian) completed a battery of assessments, including self-report measures of rumination and computerized neurocognitive tasks. Multiple regression analyses were conducted assessing relations between rumination and each executive function, controlling for both sadness and anger rumination to assess their unique associations. Sadness rumination was associated with poorer updating (β = -0.18, p = 0.046) and shifting abilities (β = 0.20, p = 0.03) but not inhibition (β = -0.04, p = 0.62), offering partial support to the attentional scope and multiple systems models. In contrast, anger rumination was associated with better updating abilities (β = 0.20, p = 0.03) but not shifting (β = -0.15, p = 0.11) or inhibition (β = 0.08, p = 0.35). Together, these results suggest (a) developmental differences in the neurocognitive correlates associated with rumination risk in youth compared to findings from the adult literature, and (b) that the executive function corr...
Source: Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: J Abnorm Child Psychol Source Type: research