Childhood behavioral inhibition and overcontrol: Risk for psychiatric and peer outcomes.

Abstract

Behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperamental trait; the error-related negativity (ERN), a marker of performance monitoring measured via electroencephalogram; and overcontrol, a phenotype characterized by perfectionism and inflexibility, all show associations with childhood anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and social functioning. However, the independent and combined risk for psychiatric and social functioning of these factors is unknown. The present study examined how childhood BI, ERN, and overcontrol independently predict longitudinal psychiatric symptoms and peer functioning. We then examined how overcontrol may mediate the relationship between BI and longitudinal outcomes, as well as how the ERN may moderate this mediation. Caregivers completed baseline (aged 5-6 years; 48% female; 77% White) measures of BI, overcontrol, and psychiatric and peer functioning (N = 123), and children completed a go/no-go task while an electroencephalogram was collected (n = 86). Two years later, parents completed measures of psychiatric symptoms and peer functioning. Findings demonstrated only overcontrol, not BI or ERN, predicted worsening anxiety and peer relations. Overcontrol mediated the relationship between BI and longitudinal anxiety and between BI and longitudinal peer functioning. The ERN did not moderate these mediations. Findings suggest overcontrol confers risk for worsening childhood psychiatric and peer outcomes and may be an understudied mechanism linking BI to these outcomes. Therefore, early identification of the overcontrolled phenotype may be important given its direct association with an exacerbation of psychiatric and peer functioning difficulties across a 2-year period. Moreover, overcontrol may be a clinically useful and potent target for childhood psychiatric and social problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).