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. 2022 Apr;70(3):830-836.
doi: 10.1080/07448481.2020.1775605. Epub 2020 Jul 1.

The role of executive functioning in health self-management and the transition to adult health care among college students

Ana M Gutierrez-Colina  1 , Molly Davis  1 , Cyd K Eaton  1 , Julia LaMotte  1 , Grace Cushman  1 , Lauren Quast  1 , Ronald L Blount  1 , Cynthia Suveg  1
Affiliations

The role of executive functioning in health self-management and the transition to adult health care among college students

Ana M Gutierrez-Colina et al. J Am Coll Health. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

ObjectiveTo examine the role of executive functioning (EF) in health self-management and the transition to adult health care among college students. Participants: A total of 378 undergraduate students from a public university participated in the study. Methods: Participants reported on EF, health self-management skills, and their readiness to transition to adult care. Mediation analyses were conducted to evaluate indirect effects of EF on readiness to transition via health self-management skills. Results: Students with greater EF difficulties were less ready to transition to adult care. Specific aspects of health self-management (Medication management/Appointment keeping) mediated the relationship between EF and readiness to transition. Conclusion: EF is a key developmental aspect of health self-management and transition readiness. Assessing EF strengths/weaknesses in students with suboptimal health self-management skills may provide valuable information for informing the development of individually-tailored transition plans in university health centers, thereby enhancing developmentally appropriate care during the college years.

Keywords: Executive functioning; health education; health self-management; transition.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Interest Statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States. The surveys were designated as exempt from institutional review board review by the University of Georgia Institutional Review Board.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Theorized model of how executive functioning relates to transition readiness via healthcare self-management skills among college students. Path values represent unstandardized coefficients, with standard errors in parentheses. The c represents the total effect and c’ represents the direct effect. *p < .01; **p < .001. The model with EF, all mediator variables, and covariates accounted for 22% of the variance in transition readiness (F(8, 368) = 13.14, p < .001). Post-hoc analyses were also conducted to evaluate the role of EF subcomponents (metacognitive and behavioral regulation domains) on self-management and transition readiness. These analyses demonstrated an identical pattern of results (see Supplemental figures S1 and S2).
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