Low neurocognitive performance and problematic contexts: interaction influences in predicting adolescent externalizing behaviors within a community sample

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research has identified neurocognitive and contextual risk factors of externalizing behaviors. However, fewer studies have examined the interaction among neurocognitive and other risk factors in predicting externalizing behaviors. The goal of the current study was to examine the relation between neurocognitive and contextual factors in predicting externalizing behaviors in a community sample of adolescents. Participants were 84 adolescents, aged 11–17 (M = 13.39, SD = 1.82), recruited as part of a larger study. Separate moderated multiple regression models were utilized in which neurocognitive variables (intellectual functioning, short-term memory/attention, disinhibition) were added as predictors and contextual variables (family dysfunction and parental depression, anxiety, and stress) were added as moderators in step 1, and their interaction was added in step 2. Externalizing behaviors served as criterion variables (hyperactivity/impulsivity and oppositional defiant disorder symptom severity, reactive and proactive aggression). Overall, results suggest that higher levels of problematic contextual factors exacerbate the significant negative associations among neurocognitive functioning and externalizing behaviors. Importantly, this pattern was shown across neurocognitive domains and contextual factors. Findings suggest that contextual factors should be targeted for the treatment or prevention of youth externalizing behaviors, particularly for adolescents with neurocognitive vulnerabilities.