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. 2020 Feb;51(1):27-38.
doi: 10.1007/s10578-019-00907-3.

The Overcontrol in Youth Checklist (OCYC): Behavioral and Neural Validation of a Parent-Report of Child Overcontrol in Early Childhood

Kirsten Gilbert  1 , Deanna M Barch  2   3   4 , Joan L Luby  2
Affiliations

The Overcontrol in Youth Checklist (OCYC): Behavioral and Neural Validation of a Parent-Report of Child Overcontrol in Early Childhood

Kirsten Gilbert et al. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2020 Feb.

Erratum in

Abstract

Self-control is protective against psychopathology in childhood. However, too much self-control, namely overcontrol, potentiates risk. Overcontrol is a constellation of child characteristics related to high need for control, perfectionism, inflexibility, social comparison, and performance monitoring and is a transdiagnostic risk factor associated with psychiatric disorders across the lifespan. However, there are no quick and developmentally appropriate screeners to identify overcontrol in early childhood, when overcontrol purportedly becomes stable. The current study validated the Overcontrol in Youth Checklist (OCYC) in 4-7 year old children and examined relationships with cognitive, social, and psychiatric, neural and behavioral indicators. The OCYC demonstrated good psychometrics and was associated with deficits in cognitive shifting, social functioning, and preschool psychopathology. Higher OCYC scores were associated with a blunted ΔERN, an indicator of performance monitoring in preschoolers. Findings demonstrate the OCYC to be a developmentally valid measure of overcontrol that identifies this transdiagnostic risk factor early in development.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02076425.

Keywords: Behavioral inhibition; Early childhood; Error-related negativity; Overcontrol; Transdiagnostic.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: KG, DB and JL have received research grants from National Institute of Health.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Grand average response-locked ERPs at Cz Note: Electrode Cz is shown and indicates the time window (in gray) used to isolate the ERN
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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