Sally Wadsworth - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sally Wadsworth

Journal of Learning Disabilities, Apr 25, 2022

This study investigated the relationship between mathematics difficulties and psychopathology in ... more This study investigated the relationship between mathematics difficulties and psychopathology in a large community sample ( N = 881) of youth (8–18 years of age) in the United States. The primary aims of the study were to (a) test the associations between mathematics difficulties and specific components of internalizing, externalizing, attention, and social problems; (b) examine potential age and gender differences; and (c) investigate the longitudinal relationship between mathematics and psychopathology using 5-year follow-up data. Results indicated that individuals with mathematics difficulties exhibited elevations in most dimensions of psychopathology, including anxiety, depression, externalizing behaviors, attention problems, and social problems. Furthermore, mathematics impairment was associated with internalizing problems, rule-breaking behaviors, inattention, and social problems even after controlling for comorbid reading difficulties. Results suggested that the associations between mathematics and psychopathology are generally similar in males and females. Finally, preliminary longitudinal evidence suggested that initial mathematics difficulties predicted elevations of conduct disorder, rule-breaking behavior, inattention, hyperactivity, and social problems at follow-up, with several of these associations remaining significant even after controlling for initial reading. In contrast, there was no significant association between initial mathematics ability and internalizing symptoms at follow-up, demonstrating some amelioration of internalizing symptoms over time.

Brant, Angela M., Boomsma, Dorret I., Corley, Robin P., DeFries, John C., Haworth, Clare MA, Hewi... more Brant, Angela M., Boomsma, Dorret I., Corley, Robin P., DeFries, John C., Haworth, Clare MA, Hewitt, John K., Martin, Nicholas G., McGue, Matthew, Petrill, Stephen A., Plomin, Robert, Wadsworth, Sally J. and Wright, Margaret J. (2010). Ability and heritability: ...

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Aug 1, 2022

Developmental Psychology, 2014

Health Psychology, Jul 1, 2019

OBJECTIVE Illness behaviors-or responses to bodily symptoms-predict individuals' recovery and... more OBJECTIVE Illness behaviors-or responses to bodily symptoms-predict individuals' recovery and functioning; however, there has been little research on the early life personality antecedents of illness behavior. This study's primary aims were to evaluate (a) childhood temperament traits (i.e., emotionality and sociability) as predictors of adult illness behaviors, independent of objective health; and (b) adult temperament traits for mediation of childhood temperament's associations. METHOD Participants included 714 (53% male; 350 adoptive family and 364 control family) children and siblings from the Colorado Adoption Project (CAP; Plomin & DeFries, 1983). Structural regression analyses evaluated paths from childhood temperament to illness behavior (i.e., somatic complaints, sick days, and medication use) at two adulthood assessments (CAP years 21 and 30). Analyses controlled for participant age, sex, family type (adoptive or control), adopted status, parent education/occupation, and middle childhood illnesses, doctor visits, and life events stress. RESULTS Latent illness behavior factors were established across 2 adulthood assessments. Multilevel path analyses revealed that higher emotionality (fearfulness) in adulthood-but not childhood temperament-predicted higher levels of illness behavior at both assessments. Lastly, lower emotionality-fearfulness partially mediated the effect of higher childhood sociability on adult illness behavior. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest the importance of childhood illness experiences and adult emotionality (fearfulness) in shaping illness behavior in early adulthood. They also suggest a small, protective role of childhood sociability on reduced trait fearfulness in adulthood. These findings broaden our understanding of the prospective links between temperament and illness behavior development, suggesting distinct associations from early life illness experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, May 1, 2019

Current definitions of specific learning disability (SLD) identify a heterogeneous population tha... more Current definitions of specific learning disability (SLD) identify a heterogeneous population that includes individuals with weaknesses in reading, math, or writing, and these academic difficulties often co-occur in many of the same individuals. The Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center (CLDRC) is an interdisciplinary, multisite research program that uses converging levels of analysis to understand the genetic and environmental etiology, neuropsychology, and developmental outcomes of SLDs in reading (RD), math (MD), and writing (WD), along with the comorbidity between these SLDs and other developmental disorders. The latest results from the CLDRC twin study suggest that shared genetic influences contribute to the significant covariance between all aspects of reading (word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension) and math (calculations, math fluency, and word problems), and distinct genetic or environmental influences also contribute to weaknesses in each specific academic

Learning and Individual Differences, Jun 1, 2012

Journal of Research in Reading, Feb 1, 2006

Prereading and early reading skills of preschool twin children in Australia, Scandinavia and the ... more Prereading and early reading skills of preschool twin children in Australia, Scandinavia and the United States were explored in a genetically sensitive design (max. N 5 627 preschool pairs and 422 kindergarten pairs). Analyses indicated a strong genetic influence on preschool phonological awareness, rapid naming and verbal memory. Print awareness, vocabulary and grammar/morphology were subject primarily to shared environment effects. There were significant genetic and shared environment correlations among the preschool traits. Kindergarten reading, phonological awareness and rapid naming were primarily affected by genes, and spelling was equally affected by genes and shared environment. Multivariate analyses revealed genetic and environmental overlap and independence among kindergarten variables. Longitudinal analyses showed genetic continuity as well as change in phonological awareness and rapid naming across the 2 years. Relations among the preschool variables of print awareness, phonological awareness and rapid naming and kindergarten reading were also explored in longitudinal analyses. Educational implications are discussed. It has been known for a century that reading difficulties aggregate within families (Thomas, 1905). About 50 years ago, evidence from limited twin studies that genetic transmission is in part responsible for this aggregation began to appear (Hallgren, 1950; Zerbin-Rudin, 1967), soon confirmed in methodologically more compelling studies

Neurobiology of Aging, Dec 1, 2019

The ε4 allele of APOE is a well-established genetic risk factor for cognitive aging and dementia,... more The ε4 allele of APOE is a well-established genetic risk factor for cognitive aging and dementia, although its influence on early life cognition is unknown. Consequently, we assessed associations of APOE genotypes with cognitive performance during 7, 12 and 16 year-assessments in our ongoing Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development (CATSLife). In general, APOE ε4 was associated with lower Verbal, Performance and Full Scale IQ scores during childhood and adolescence (e.g., Full Scale IQ was lower by 1.91 points per ε4 allele, d = −.13), with larger effects in females (e.g., average Full Scale IQ scores were 3.41 points lower in females per each ε4 allele, versus .33 points lower in males). Thus, these results suggest that deleterious effects of the APOE ε4 allele are manifested prior to adulthood, especially in females, and support both early origin theories and differential life-course vulnerabilities for later cognitive impairment.

Innovation in Aging, Nov 1, 2018

The current study examined the bidirectional effects between day-today perceptions of control and... more The current study examined the bidirectional effects between day-today perceptions of control and the experience of daily stressors: Stress exposure might undermine individuals' perceptions of control, whereas high perceptions of control may mitigate the effects of stress exposure. These effects might also differ for individuals of different ages. Using daily diary data (30 days, N=289 aged 18-89 years) and autoregressive mixed models on daily measures of perceived control and stressor severity, perceived control accounted for next-day reports of stressor severity, whereas the reversed effects of stress on perceived control were not supported. Perceived control did not moderate the daily stressor-affect coupling, but predicted next-day affect outcomes. These effects of perceived control were not related to age. Overall, these findings qualify the role of daily fluctuations in perceived control in resilience towards daily stressors: Rather than enhancing individuals' coping with stress, feeling "in control" reduces the perception of stressor severity.

Journal of Research on Adolescence, Jul 18, 2012

Adopted children show more problem behaviors than nonadopted children. Given that internationally... more Adopted children show more problem behaviors than nonadopted children. Given that internationally-adopted individuals show earlier puberty than non-adopted individuals, and early puberty is associated with problem behaviors in nonadopted youth, we analyzed data from domestic adoptees to determine whether problem behaviors could be explained by differences in pubertal timing. Relative to nonadopted controls (n = 153), domestically-adopted girls (n = 121) had earlier menarche, earlier sexual initiation, and more conduct disorder symptoms. Age at menarche partially mediated the relation of adoptive status to sexual initiation, but not to conduct disorder symptoms. Extending findings from international adoptees, results show that domestic adoption is also linked to earlier puberty, and suggest early puberty as one mechanism linking adoption to problematic outcomes. Adoption is associated with a greater risk for behavior problems in childhood (Keyes, Sharma, Elkins, Iacono, & McGue, 2008). Adopted children are two to four times more likely to develop behavior problems-including aggressive, defiant, and risky behaviorsthan children who are not adopted (Brodzinsky, 1993; Juffer & van IJzendoorn, 2005; Wierzbicki, 1993). Adopted adolescents are at increased risk for substance use (Fergusson, Lynskey, & Horwood, 1995), juvenile offending (Fergusson et al., 1995), and early sexual activity (Bricker et al., 2006). Explanations proposed to account for the increase in behavior problems in adopted compared to nonadopted individuals include characteristics such as thrill-seeking or risk-taking (e.g., Markey, Markey, & Tinsley, 2003; Martin et al., 2002), but there have been few direct empirical tests of such mechanisms. We suggest that pubertal timing is a mechanism linking adoption to the development of behavior problems in adolescence, especially in girls. Like adoptive status, early puberty in girls has been associated with an increased rate of problematic outcomes compared to ontime puberty, including low school achievement (Cavanagh, Riegle-Crumb, & Crosnoe,

Twin Research and Human Genetics, Nov 11, 2019

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Jul 22, 2023

Objectives Frailty is not an end state of aging, but rather represents physiological vulnerabilit... more Objectives Frailty is not an end state of aging, but rather represents physiological vulnerability across multiple systems that unfolds across adulthood. However, examinations of frailty at the midlife transition, and how frailty may impact other age-sensitive traits, such as processing speed (PS) remain scarce. Our research aims were to examine frailty and frailty-speed associations before midlife, a ripe developmental period for healthy aging interventions. Method Using data from the Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development and cognitive aging (CATSLife1; N=1215; Mage=33.23 years; SD=4.98), we constructed 25-item (FI25) and 30-item (FI30) frailty indices. PS was measured using the Colorado Perceptual Speed (CPS) task and WAIS-III Digit Symbol (DS) subtest. Multilevel models accounted for clustering among siblings and adjusted for sex, race, ethnicity, adoption status, educational attainment, and age. Results Reliability of FI measures was apparent from strong intraclass correlations (ICCs) among identical twin siblings, while ICC patterns across all siblings suggested that FI variability may include non-additive genetic contributions. Higher FI was associated with poorer PS performance but was significant for DS only (BFI25=-1.17, p=.001, d=-0.12; BFI30=-1.23, p=.0007, d=-0.12). Furthermore, the negative frailty-DS association was moderated by age (BFI25xAge=-0.14, p=.042; BFI30xAge=-0.19, p=.008) where increasingly worse performance with higher frailty emerged at older ages. Discussion Frailty is evident before midlife and associated with poorer PS, an association that magnifies with age. These findings help elucidate the interrelationship between indicators of frailty and cognitive performance for adults approaching midlife, an understudied period within lifespan development.

Development and Psychopathology, Nov 18, 2019

International Journal of Behavioral Development, Jun 1, 1999

Results obtained from longitudinal studies suggest that individual differences in reading perform... more Results obtained from longitudinal studies suggest that individual differences in reading performance are relatively stable over time. However, the aetiology of this stability has not been previously explored. In the current study, the aetiology of longitudinal stability of reading performance between 7 and 12 years of age was assessed using data from adoptive (97 unrelated sibling pairs at age 7 and 73 pairs at age 12) and nonadoptive (106 related pairs at age 7 and 75 pairs at age 12) children tested in the Colorado Adoption Project. Results of a bivariate behavioural genetic analysis confirmed earlier findings of moderate genetic influence on individual differences in reading performance at both 7 and 12 years of age ( h2 = .49 and .37, respectively). Moreover, about 70% of the observed stability ( r = .61) between the two ages was due to common genetic influences. Of special interest, no new heritable or shared environmental variation was manifested at age 12, suggesting that the same genetic and shared environmental influences were operating at both ages. In contrast, nonshared environmental influences (e.g. instructional methods, teachers, peers, etc.) were responsible for change between 7 and 12 years of age, indicating the salience of such factors for the development of reading performance between middle childhood and adolescence.

Innovation in Aging

Cognitive reserve (CR) refers to adaptability allowing for better cognitive outcomes given the de... more Cognitive reserve (CR) refers to adaptability allowing for better cognitive outcomes given the degree of brain changes or other risk factors for cognitive decline. Despite significant research efforts, our knowledge of cognitive reserve proxies remains limited. Studies predominantly use a single sociodemographic variable (e.g., education attainment) as a proxy measure when CR can manifest in multiple domains. Studies also tend to rely on older samples, whereas adversity factors of cognitive performance may have differing onset ages, suggesting different risk or protective mechanisms at different ages. We examine two cohort datasets spanning from early adolescence (Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, N = 5559) up to the cusp of mid-adulthood (Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development and cognitive aging; CATSLife, N = 1327) to evaluate the role of CR proxies across over 100 variables. Defined as a moderator between a cognitive outcome and structural br...