Date of Award
Summer 2025
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Kate Flory
Abstract
Childhood adversity (CA) impacts a large proportion of US youth with far reaching consequences for development and subsequent health outcomes (McLaughlin et al., 2012). Given the widespread impact of CA, it is imperative to understand how these exposures impact development, as well as identify opportunities for intervention. McLaughlin and Sheridan (2016) proposed the Dimensional Model of Adversity of Psychopathology (DMAP), providing a framework for understanding the heterogeneity of outcomes related to exposure to CA. DMAP emphasizes that deprivation (i.e., lack of expected cognitive or social stimulation) and environmental threat (i.e., exposure to harm or the threat of harm) impacts youth development differentially and should be assessed as distinct exposures. Specifically, deprivation is believed to predict poor cognitive functioning outcomes, while threat is likely associated with emotion dysregulation. The current study aims to contribute to the existing body of literature applying the DMAP framework while using data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a large and diverse sample of early adolescents. Further, the current study examined the role of school support in moderating the association between CA and executive functioning, as well as CA and emotion regulation. Findings revealed that both threat and deprivation are linked to deficits in emotion regulation, while only experiences of deprivation are associated with executive function. Additionally, school support may serve as a protective factor in the association between threat and emotion regulation. These findings support the DMAP and inform our understanding of development related to exposure to CA, as well as potential opportunities for intervention to promote positive development after experiences of adversity.
Rights
© 2025, Abigail Best de Arellano
Recommended Citation
de Arellano, A. B.(2025). Deprivation and Threat as Predictors of Executive Functioning and Emotion Regulation in Early Adolescence: The Protective Role of School Support. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8473