Development of internalizing symptomology in harsh rearing and neighborhood contexts: The role of executive...

Guided by developmental psychopathology and evolutionary developmental psychology models, the aim of the present study was to investigate the role of executive functioning (EF) in associations between neighborhood harshness and adolescent internalizing symptomology, for youth who both were and were not exposed to child maltreatment. Data were obtained from a sample of 234 children (52.3% male; 59.2% Black/African American, 12.4% White, 9.2% Latine/Hispanic, 13.7% biracial or multiracial, 5.6% other race) who were recruited from an urban region to participate in a longitudinal study beginning at, approximately, 4 years old. The present study included data collected at age 9 and age 11 timepoints. Child maltreatment data were coded from Child Protective Services records. Results showed that child maltreatment occurring birth through early adolescence was not directly associated with adolescents' EF. EF moderated the association between harsh neighborhood contexts and prospective internalizing symptomology for adolescents with and without exposure to child maltreatment. In addition, the pattern of results was significantly different for adolescents with and without maltreatment exposure. Lower EF scores were associated with fewer internalizing symptoms for adolescents with maltreatment exposure who were living in harsh neighborhoods. Moderation results differed by type of EF task. Overall, findings underscore the need to approach research on early life adversity and the development of psychopathology from an adaptation-based perspective, and to consider the impact of neighborhood context on the development of internalizing psychopathology during adolescence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).