Abstract:

Exposure to childhood adversity has been consistently associated with poor devel- opmental outcomes, but it is unclear whether these associations vary across dif- ferent forms of adversity. We examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associa- tions between threat and deprivation with cognition, emotional processing, and psy- chopathology in a middle-income country. The sample consisted of 2511 children and adolescents (6–17 years old) from the Brazilian High-Risk Cohort for Mental Condi- tions. Parent reports on childhood adversity were used to construct adversity latent constructs. Psychopathology was measured by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to generate a measure of general psychopathology (the “p” factor). Executive function (EF) and attention orienting toward angry faces were assessed using cognitive tasks. All measures were acquired at two time-points 3 years apart and associations were tested using general linear models. Higher levels of psychopathology were predicted by higher levels of threat cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and by deprivation longi- tudinally. For EF, worse performance was associated only with deprivation at baseline and follow-up. Finally, threat was associated with attention orienting towards angry faces cross-sectionally, but neither form of adversity was associated with changes over time in attention bias. Our results suggest that threat and deprivation have dif- ferential associations with cognitive development and psychopathology. Exposure to adversity during childhood is a complex phenomenon with meaningful influences on child development. Because adversity can take many forms, dimensional models might help to disentangle the specific developmental correlates of different types of early experience. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=uEU0L8exyTM.

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