Funcionamiento neurocognitivo en la adolescenciarelación con variables de ajuste psicológico

Resumen

Adolescence is considered a crucial stage of development with different transformations that impact on all areas of the person. These changes involve significant structural changes and their corresponding functional correlates at the biological, psychological and social levels. In addition, the culture and environment in which the individual grows and develops modulate, to a large extent, the duration and impact of these changes, as well as the coping with them. Executive functions are higher order psychological processes that include, but are not limited to, attention, planning, sequencing, problem solving, working memory, cognitive flexibility, abstract thinking, rule acquisition, and selection of relevant sensory information. These types of skills are extremely relevant for the person's adaptation to the environment. The main objective of this doctoral thesis was to study the relationship between neurocognitive functioning and different psychological adjustment variables such as subjective well-being, positive and negative affection and emotional and behavioral problems in the adolescent population of the Autonomous Community of La Rioja. The sample consisted of a total of 1509 adolescents from public and concerted centers selected through a sample stratified by clusters. The age of the participants was between 14 and 19 years (DT = 1.51), with a total of 467 (30.94%) men. The University of Pennsylvania Neuropsychological Battery (PENN) was administered for the different works (which includes 14 tasks evaluating 5 neurocognitive domains: executive functions, episodic memory, complex cognition, social cognition and sensory-motor speed), the Personal Wellness Scale for Children (PWI–SC), the short version of the Positive Affection Scale (PANAS) and the Skills and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). For the first study, 84 participants with high psychometric risk and 84 from the comparison group were selected, for the second study, 92 participants with high psychometric risk and 92 from the comparison group were selected and for the last research, 48 participants with high psychometric risk and 48 from the comparison group were selected, based on the scores obtained in the PWI-SC, PANAS and SDQ, respectively. A Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) was carried out taking the scores in the PENN as dependent variables and the two groups (high risk and comparison) derived from the scores, the PWI SC, the PANAS and the SDQ and as independent variables. The results in accuracy, speed and efficiency showed statistically significant differences in some of the neurocognitive domains between adolescents at high risk of psychological adjustment problems and those of the comparison group. First, the results in subjective well-being and neurocognitive functioning indicate that in precision the adolescents at risk showed a worse performance in episodic memory tasks and social cognition. Regarding the rate of execution, the results showed statistically significant differences in complex cognition. For its part, the analysis of efficiency, i.e. the result of precision and speed of execution, revealed statistically significant differences in all neurocognitive domains. Regarding affectivity, the results in precision indicate that adolescents with difficulties in Positive and Negative Affection show statistically significant differences in all neurocognitive domains (executive control, complex cognition and social cognition), except in episodic memory. Regarding the speed of execution, statistically significant differences were found in the domain of executive control and in complex cognition. Referring to efficiency, it was found that adolescents who showed a high risk obtained lower scores in three of the four neurocognitive domains: executive control, complex cognition, and social cognition. Finally, regarding emotional and behavioral problems and neurocognitive functioning, results in accuracy showed that at-risk adolescents performed worse in all neurocognitive domains except the social cognition domain. Regarding the speed of execution, the adolescents at risk showed slower performance in all domains than the comparison group with the exception of the sensorimotor domain. And the efficiency results show statistically significant differences in complex cognition and social cognition. These findings reveal that neurocognitive functioning may be impaired in adolescents at high psychometric risk with mental health problems. This doctoral thesis provides information that could help to understand the underlying etiology of different psychological difficulties, which can facilitate early detection. All this with the aim of promoting the prevention of these difficulties at a particularly relevant stage such as adolescence.