Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Oct 1;12(10):1333.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci12101333.

Profiles of Caregiver-Reported Executive Function in Children with Down Syndrome

Kaylyn Van Deusen  1 , Mark A Prince  2 , Anna J Esbensen  3   4 , Jamie O Edgin  5 , Emily K Schworer  3   6 , Angela John Thurman  7 , Lina R Patel  8 , Lisa A Daunhauer  1 , Deborah J Fidler  1
Affiliations

Profiles of Caregiver-Reported Executive Function in Children with Down Syndrome

Kaylyn Van Deusen et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Children with Down syndrome (DS) are at risk for challenges with aspects of executive function (EF). The current study explores whether heterogeneity in EF profiles can be detected within a sample of children with DS. Participants were 69 children with DS, ages 3-10 years (M = 6.23, SD = 1.91). T-scores from a caregiver-report measure of executive function were modeled using latent profile analysis, and auxiliary analyses examined the association between demographic and biomedical factors and probability of profile membership. The two-profile solution was the best fit for the sample, with a profile that involved elevated scores in working memory only ("Working Memory Only" profile; 43% of sample) and a "Multi-Domain" profile that involved elevated scores in planning, inhibition, and working memory (57%). The presence of congenital heart defects was associated with a higher probability of assignment to the Multi-Domain profile. Findings from this study contribute to the characterization of heterogeneous outcomes associated with DS.

Keywords: Down syndrome; executive function; latent profile analysis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Working Memory and Multi-Domain Profiles radar plot compares the overlap in mean BRIEF-P domain T-scores across the two latent profiles. The scale is set to the range of individual BRIEF-P T-scores (T = 35–104) in the study sample.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Laureys F., De Waelle S., Barendse M.T., Lenoir M., Deconinck F.J. The factor structure of executive function in childhood and adolescence. Intelligence. 2022;90:101600. doi: 10.1016/j.intell.2021.101600. - DOI
    1. Miyake A., Friedman N.P. The nature and organization of individual differences in executive functions: Four general conclusions. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 2012;21:8–14. doi: 10.1177/0963721411429458. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Miyake A., Friedman N.P., Emerson M.J., Witzki A.H., Howerter A. The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex ‘frontal lobe’ tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cogn. Psychol. 2000;41:49–100. doi: 10.1006/cogp.1999.0734. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hendry A., Jones E.J., Charman T. Executive function in the first three years of life: Precursors, predictors and patterns. Dev. Rev. 2016;42:1–33. doi: 10.1016/j.dr.2016.06.005. - DOI
    1. Schworer E., Fidler D.J., Kaur M., Needham A., Prince M.A., Daunhauer L.A. Infant precursors of executive function in Down syndrome. J. Intellect. Disabil. Res. 2022;66:108–120. doi: 10.1111/jir.12824. - DOI - PubMed