Do executive functions moderate or mediate? exploring their role in the prospective association between psychopathic traits and conduct problems in children
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Executive functions, including working memory, inhibition, sustained attention, cognitive flexibility, and planning are critical for regulating behavior and have been linked to externalizing outcomes. Similarly, psychopathic traits in childhood, particularly Callous-Unemotional, Grandiose-Deceitful, and Impulsivity-Need for Stimulation, are robust predictors of later conduct problems. Although studies have examined these relationships, findings are inconsistent regarding whether executive functions mediate or moderate the prospective association between early psychopathic traits and later conduct problems, and whether specific executive function components play distinct roles across psychopathy dimensions. Moreover, most prior work has relied on either teacher ratings or performance-based executive function measures alone, despite evidence that these approaches capture complementary aspects of executive functions. METHODS: This longitudinal study followed a community sample of 215 children (Mage = 8.2 years) over five years. At baseline, parents rated psychopathic traits, teachers assessed executive function difficulties (working memory, inhibition/regulation), and children completed performance-based executive function tasks (working memory, sustained attention, cognitive flexibility, and planning). At follow-up, new teachers rated conduct problems, ensuring independent assessments. Mediation and moderation analyses were conducted using PROCESS (Hayes, 2022),…
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