The role of motor impulsivity in socioemotional adjustment in high-risk seven year old children and healthy controls: a follow-up study

The main aim of the present study was two-wise: first, to assess the presence of behavioral and intellectual disturbances in high-risk 7-year-old children, compared to healthy controls; and, second, and most importantly, to evaluate the discriminative validity of a motor impulsivity neuropsychological task (Go/No-go) as an indicator of daily-life socioemotional adjustment. We administered the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children (BASC), the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISCIV), and the Go/No-go task to 14 high-risk 7 year-olds and 20 matched healthy controls. High-risk children had been classified as so shortly after birth, due to the presence of perinatal risk factors, and later released from the early care unit. They are currently schooled according to their age. We expected performance in the Go/No-go task to be a good indicator of behavioral disturbances in high-risk children, and more specifically of those related to socioemotional adjustment. Accordingly to such a hypothesis, high-risk children showed significantly worse scores in most BASC and WISC subscales, and committed more commission and omission errors on the Go/No-go task. Most importantly, regression analyses showed that performance on the Go/No-go task (but not WISC scores) was an independent indicator of socioemotional adjustment problems. This result is in accordance with proposals that motor impulsivity is an important mediator between altered executive function development and socioemotional adjustment.