Exploring the Impact of Childhood Adversity on Adolescent Executive Function: The Role of Pubertal Timing

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been consistently associated with negative impacts on individual’s health and development including, but not limited to, changes in pubertal timing and the development of executive function; however, whether pubertal timing mediates the association between ACEs and executive functioning remains unknown. To address this gap, data was leveraged from a large-scale, nationally representative sample of American adolescents (Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study; N = 11,878, 52% male, 52.4% White, 13.4% Black, 24.0% Hispanic). Concurrent models assessed the integrity of adolescents’ core executive function abilities via their performance on tasks of response inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility (baseline assessment; 9-10 years), whereas prospective models examined adolescents’ day-to-day executive functioning in life via parent ratings of their behavior (Time 5 follow-up assessment; 12-13 years). For females, but not males, earlier pubertal timing mediated pathways between greater ACE exposure and executive functions at both time points: at baseline, this was reflected in lower levels of performance on executive function tasks and at follow-up parent endorsement of executive function challenges in everyday living. These findings suggest there may be sex-specific pathways through which early adversity experiences impact subsequent development, with puberty emerging as a particularly important consideration for females vis-à-vis adolescent refinements in their capacity for cognitive self-regulation.