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
. 2024 Jul;52(7):1119-1133.
doi: 10.1007/s10802-024-01191-z. Epub 2024 Mar 19.

Examining Conduct Problems in a Community Sample during Middle Childhood: The Role of Frontal EEG Asymmetry, Temperament, and Working Memory

Mohamed Zerrouk  1 , Martha Ann Bell  2
Affiliations

Examining Conduct Problems in a Community Sample during Middle Childhood: The Role of Frontal EEG Asymmetry, Temperament, and Working Memory

Mohamed Zerrouk et al. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2024 Jul.

Abstract

Previous literature shows that aspects of temperament, executive functioning, and EEG frontal asymmetry are related to externalizing behaviors in children. We examined whether frontal EEG asymmetry measured at age 6 would moderate the impact of negative affectivity, attentional control, and working memory at age 6 on conduct problems at age 9. Behavioral tasks were given to assess children's attentional control and working memory. Parents completed questionnaires about their children's negative affectivity and conduct problems. Results showed that greater negative affectivity reported at age 6 predicted for more conduct problems reported at age 9, regardless of EEG frontal asymmetry. Lower levels of attentional control and working memory at age 6 predicted for more conduct problems reported at age 9 when children also exhibited greater left EEG frontal asymmetry, which has been linked to approach motivation. These findings illustrate the importance of assessing multiple intrinsic factors, both independent and interactive, that contribute to children's conduct problems.

Keywords: EEG Frontal Asymmetry; Executive Functioning; Middle Childhood; Temperament.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Age 6 frontal EEG asymmetry moderates the relation between Age 6 attentional control and age 9 conduct problems. Note. AC = attentional control. FA = frontal EEG asymmetry; left FA are positive numbers indicative of relatively greater left FA and right FA are negative numbers indicative of relatively greater right FA
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Johnson-Neyman plot of age 6 child AC interacting with age 6 child EEG frontal asymmetry in predicting the conduct problems at age 9. Note. AC = attentional control and FA = EEG frontal asymmetry. The vertical line represents the boundary of significance, whereby the effect of AC on conduct problems was significant only for children with AC values to the right of the vertical line (-0.071)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Age 6 frontal EEG asymmetry moderates the relation between age 6 working memory and age 9 conduct problems. Note. WM = working memory. FA = frontal EEG asymmetry; left FA are positive numbers indicative of relatively greater left FA and right FA are negative numbers indicative of relatively greater right FA
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Johnson-Neyman plot of age 6 child WM interacting with age 6 child EEG Frontal Asymmetry in Predicting the Conduct Problems at Age 9. Note. WM = working memory and FA = EEG frontal asymmetry. The vertical line represents the boundary of significance, whereby the effect of WM on conduct problems was significant for children with positive WM values to the left of the first vertical line (FA = − 0.295) and with negative WM values to the right of the second vertical line (FA = − 0.028)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Achenbach, T. M., Dumenci, L., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001). Ratings of relations between DSM-IV diagnostic categories and items of the CBCL/6-18, TRF, and YSR (pp. 1–9). University of Vermont.
    1. Andershed H, Colins OF, Salekin RT, Lordos A, Kyranides MN, Fanti KA. Callous-unemotional traits only versus the multidimensional psychopathy construct as predictors of various antisocial outcomes during early adolescence. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment. 2018;40(1):16–25. doi: 10.1007/s10862-018-9659-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Austin G, Bondü R, Elsner B. Executive function, theory of mind, and conduct- problem symptoms in middle childhood. Frontiers in Psychology. 2020;11:539. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00539. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baddeley A. Working memory. Science. 1992;255(5044):556–559. doi: 10.1126/science.1736359. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bates, J. E., Goodnight, J. A., & Fite, J. E. (2008). Temperament and emotion. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones, & L. F. Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 485–496). The Guilford.

LinkOut - more resources