Early life stress and mental health – Attentional bias, executive function and resilience as moderating and mediating factors

Abstract

Early life stress (ELS) refers to exposure to negative events in childhood such as abuse and neglect. The Dimensional Model of Adversity and Psychopathology categorizes ELS into threat (e.g., abuse) or deprivation (e.g., neglect). Threat is linked to attentional bias toward threatening stimuli, whereas deprivation is associated with executive function impairment. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of attentional bias, executive functions and resilience between ELS-threat and ELS-deprivation and mental health. Across two studies, 316 participants completed online questions regarding ELS, resilience and mental health. Study 1 participants completed the N-back task to assess attentional bias. Study 2 participants completed questions regarding executive function. Results showed no association between ELS-threat and attentional bias. ELS-threat predicted poor mental health. ELS-deprivation and ELS-threat were associated with poorer executive function. More importantly, the effect of ELS-deprivation on resilience was buffered by higher executive function. Greater ELS-deprivation led to a steeper decline of resilience for individuals with higher executive function. Lower resilience was linked to poor mental health. The study suggests that, although ELS-deprivation may lead to negative mental health, interventions that help increase executive function in children could improve their resilience and promote mental health.