Cognitive Flexibility, Inhibitory Control, and Trajectories of Irritability from Late Childhood Through Early Adolescence.

Abstract

Objective: Irritability is associated with an array of deleterious outcomes, yet research examining developmental antecedents is limited. The present study addresses this gap by examining cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control as predictors of irritability from late childhood through early adolescence.

Method: A second-order latent growth curve model (LGCM) was constructed to investigate irritability across ages 9-13 using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study (N = 11,720, 47.9% female). Cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control were examined as predictors. Sensitivity analyses controlled for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, defiance, and biological sex.

Results: The best-fitting unconditional LGCM showed a modest but significant linear decline in irritability from late childhood through early adolescence, with significant inter-individual variability. In conditional LGCMs, lower levels of cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control at baseline predicted higher levels of irritability at baseline and a faster decline in irritability over time. The effects of cognitive variables on irritability trajectories were attenuated to non-significance when ADHD symptoms, defiance, and biological sex were included as covariates.

Conclusion: Using a large, nationally representative sample, this study characterizes the average trajectory of irritability from late childhood through early adolescence. Results suggest that while there appears to be a concurrent effect of cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control on irritability, this may diminish over time. Moreover, ADHD symptoms, defiance, and biological sex may play a more central role. Future research should investigate these associations under frustration, when cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control are key.