Well-Being and Cognition Are Coupled During Development: A Preregistered Longitudinal Study of 1,136 Children and Adolescents

Well-being and cognition are linked in adulthood, but how the two domains interact during development is currently unclear. Using a complex systems approach, we preregistered and modeled the relationship between well-being and cognition in a prospective cohort of 1,136 children between the ages of 6 to 7 years and 15 years. We found bidirectional interactions between well-being and cognition that unfold dynamically over time. Higher externalizing symptoms in childhood predicted fewer gains in planning over time (standardized estimate [β] = −0.14, p = .019), whereas higher childhood vocabulary predicted smaller increases in loneliness over time (β = −0.34, p ≤ .001). These interactions were characterized by modifiable risk and resilience factors: Relationships to parents, friendship quality, socioeconomic status, and puberty onset were all linked to both cognitive and well-being outcomes. Thus, cognition and well-being are inextricably intertwined during development and may be malleable to social and biological factors.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science

• Publication date

  2021-08-31

• Fields of study

  Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1177/21677026211030211
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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