Longitudinal Transactional Associations Between Executive Function Components and Psychosocial Problems Across Late Childhood and Adolescence

Objective Executive function may protect against internalizing and externalizing problems, but it may also be compromised by these problems. This longitudinal study examined the developmental transactions between executive function and internalizing and externalizing problems across late childhood to adolescence using a Chinese sample.Method A total of 285 fifth-graders (younger cohort, 10.81 years, 58.6% boys) and 269 ninth-graders (older cohort, 14.74 years, 47.2% boys) were assessed for five waves across 3 years. At each wave (starting November 2020), youth reported internalizing and externalizing problems and completed inhibitory control, shifting, and updating tasks, and caregivers reported their child’s executive functioning by questionnaire.Results Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models revealed that poorer task-based executive functions predicted later externalizing problems in the younger cohort. In the older cohort, bidirectional associations emerged between rating-based executive function and internalizing problems, with component-specific analyses revealing that rating-based updating showed the most consistent associations. Gender differences emerged: parent-rated poorer executive functions predicted increases in externalizing and internalizing problems among girls in the older cohort.Conclusions These findings suggest the variations across age cohorts and measurement approaches in the associations between executive function and internalizing and externalizing problems from late childhood through adolescence. Further, these findings, derived from a Chinese cultural context, highlight the need for cross-cultural replication to determine generalizability.