Differential Associations of Adversity Profiles with Adolescent Cognitive Control and Psychopathology

Adverse childhood experiences are common and have long-term consequences for biological and psychosocial adjustment. We used a person-centered approach to characterize distinct profiles of adversity in early adolescence and examined associations with later cognitive control and psychopathology. The sample included 167 adolescents (47% female) and their primary caregivers who participated in a longitudinal study across four time points (approximately one year between assessments). At Time 1 (Mage = 14 years), we measured seven indicators of adversity: socioeconomic disadvantage, abuse, neglect, household chaos, parent substance use, parent depression, and negative life events. At Times 2–4, adolescents’ behavioral performance and functional activation during a cognitive control task were measured. At Time 5, adolescents and their caregiver reported on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptomatology. Using latent profile analysis, we identified four distinct adversity subgroups: a low exposure group, a neglect group, a household instability group, and a poly-adversity group. These groups significantly differed on subsequent levels of psychopathology, but not cognitive control. Specifically, the poly-adversity group reported significantly higher levels of both internalizing and externalizing symptomatology relative to the low exposure group, and the household instability group demonstrated elevated risk for externalizing symptomatology. When using a cumulative risk approach, higher levels of adversity exposure were associated with significantly worse cognitive control performance (but not neural activation). These results suggest that psychopathology outcomes may be differentially predicted by distinct patterns of risk, and that cognitive control impairment may be more strongly predicted by cumulative risk.