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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Pediatric Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1487908
This article is part of the Research Topic Psychological Implications of Preterm Birth View all 9 articles

Executive Functioning Challenges of Adolescents born Extremely and Very Preterm

Provisionally accepted
Samantha Lee Samantha Lee 1*Lianne Woodward Lianne Woodward 1Stephanie Moor Stephanie Moor 2Nicola C Austin Nicola C Austin 3,4
  • 1 University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
  • 2 Older Person's Mental Health, Burwood Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand
  • 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Christchurch Women's Hospital, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
  • 4 Department of Paediatrics, University of Otago, Christchurch, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Children born very preterm (VPT; <32 weeks) are at increased risk of executive functioning (EF) difficulties. But less is known about the nature and extent of these executive difficulties during late adolescence, particularly across multiple EF domains and in response to varying degrees of executive demand. Methods: Using data from a prospective longitudinal study, this paper describes the EF profiles of 92 VPT and 68 full-term (FT) adolescents at age 17 years. Relations between gestational age (GA) and later EF performance, in addition to neonatal predictors, were examined. Results: VPT-born adolescents performed less well than FT adolescents across the domains of working memory, planning, and cognitive flexibility, with the largest differences observed for those born <28 weeks GA (effect sizes -0.6 to -1.0 SD), and when task demands were high. The effects of GA on EF outcome were fully mediated by neonatal medical complexity (b = 0.169, t = -1.73) and term equivalent white matter abnormalities (b = 0.107, t = -3.33). Conclusion: Findings support the need for long-term cognitive support for individuals born very preterm, particularly those exposed to high levels of medical and neurological risk, with these factors largely explaining associations between GA and EF outcome.

    Keywords: Very preterm birth, Neonatal risk, medical complexity, Executive Function, neurodevelopmental outcome, adolescence

    Received: 29 Aug 2024; Accepted: 22 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lee, Woodward, Moor and Austin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Samantha Lee, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

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