The effect of parental loss on cognitive and affective interference in adolescent boys from a post-conflict region.

S C Mueller, R Baudoncq, M De Schryver

Journal: Journal of adolescence 2016;42():11-9

PMID: 25899130

Full Text on Elsevier Science View on PubMed

Abstract

Little is known about the impact of early-life stressors such as parental loss on cognitive-affective processing during adolescence, especially in regions chronically affected by war and armed conflict. Here, we tested 72 male adolescents living in Northern Uganda (ages 14-19), 52 of whom still had both of their parents and 20 participants who had experienced parental loss. Participants completed a classic color-naming Stroop task as well as an affective interference task, the opposite emotions test (OET). Adolescents with parental loss showed a decrease in performance over time, especially on the Stroop task. Critically, this decrement in performance was positively associated with reported symptoms of trauma, but only in the parental loss group. The current data suggest a difficulty in maintaining cognitive control performance in youths with experience of parental loss. The findings are discussed in relation to traumatic stress and mental health in post-conflict regions.

Address: Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium. Electronic address: [email protected].; Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium.

DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.03.018

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MeSH Terms: Adolescent, Cognition Disorders, Developing Countries, Female, Humans, Life Change Events, Male, Mood Disorders, Parental Death, Reaction Time, Sense of Coherence, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Stroop Test, Surveys and Questionnaires, Uganda, Warfare, Young Adult