childhood adversity and functional impairment in emerging adulthood: the role of executive function
abstract
emerging adulthood (ea; ages 18-29) is a unique developmental period when individuals
transition from their teenage years into adulthood, experiencing increased demands associated
with independence. for some, there are increased levels of uncertainty and mental health
difficulties, but, for those who adapt to such transitions, there are positive implications in later
life. adverse childhood experiences (aces) may potentiate transitional difficulties in ea.
aces are known to disrupt neurodevelopment and executive function (ef), a key set of mental
skills that include emotion regulation and planning. as such, emerging adults who experience
aces may be at an increased risk for impairment during these important transitional years.
this study examines whether aces are related to decreases in ef and functional impairment in
emerging adults. specifically, hayes’ process macro is used to test whether the relationship
between aces and functional impairment was moderated by ef. a total of 162 emerging
adults completed an online self-report questionnaire package assessing aces, ef, and
functional impairment. as expected, regression analyses highlighted that number of endorsed
aces significantly predict self-reported ef scores in emerging adults. similarly, aces predict
self-reported functional impairment in the domains of school, family, life skills, risky
behaviours, self-concept and social relationships. however, ef did not significantly moderate
the relationship between aces and functional impairment, contrary to expectation. upon
further investigation, exploratory mediational analyses demonstrated that ef significantly
mediates the relationship between aces and functional impairment such that ef partially
explains the relationship between aces and functional impairment in emerging adults. the
present results demonstrate the need to consider ef as a target to reduce functional impairment
in emerging adults.