Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Overcontrol in Youth Checklist (OCYC): Behavioral and Neural Validation of a Parent-Report of Child Overcontrol in Early Childhood

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Child Psychiatry & Human Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Correction to this article was published on 18 March 2020

This article has been updated

Abstract

Self-control is protective against psychopathology in childhood. However, too much self-control, namely overcontrol, potentiates risk. Overcontrol is a constellation of child characteristics related to high need for control, perfectionism, inflexibility, social comparison, and performance monitoring and is a transdiagnostic risk factor associated with psychiatric disorders across the lifespan. However, there are no quick and developmentally appropriate screeners to identify overcontrol in early childhood, when overcontrol purportedly becomes stable. The current study validated the Overcontrol in Youth Checklist (OCYC) in 4–7 year old children and examined relationships with cognitive, social, and psychiatric, neural and behavioral indicators. The OCYC demonstrated good psychometrics and was associated with deficits in cognitive shifting, social functioning, and preschool psychopathology. Higher OCYC scores were associated with a blunted ΔERN, an indicator of performance monitoring in preschoolers. Findings demonstrate the OCYC to be a developmentally valid measure of overcontrol that identifies this transdiagnostic risk factor early in development.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

  • 18 March 2020

    The original version of this paper has unfortunately published with some errors which are corrected by publishing this Correction article.

References

  1. Moffitt TE et al (2011) A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth and public safety. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108:2693–2698

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Eisenberg N et al (2001) The relations of regulation and emotionality to childrens externalizing and internalizing problem behavior. Child Dev 72(4):1112–1134

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Eisenberg N, Spinrad TL, Eggum ND (2010) Emotion-related self-regulation and its relation to children’s maladjustment. Annu Rev Clin Psychol 6:495–525

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Donnellan BM, Robins RW (2010) Resilient, overcontrolled and undercontrolled personality types: issues and controversies. Soc Pers Psychol Compass 3:1–14

    Google Scholar 

  5. Zucker NL et al (2007) Anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorders: guided investigation of social cognitive endophenotypes. Psychol Bull 133(6):976–1006

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Altman SE, Shankman SA (2009) What is the association between obsessive-compulsive disorder and eating disorders? Clin Psychol Rev 29(7):638–646

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Lynch TR (2018) Radically open dialectical behavior therapy: theory and practice for treating disorders of overcontrol. Context Press, Oakland

    Google Scholar 

  8. Kagan J et al (1984) Behavioral inhibition to the unfamiliar. Child Dev 55:2212–2225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Derryberry D, Rothbart MK (1997) Reactive and effortful processes in the organization of temperament. Dev Psychopathol 9(4):633–652

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Fox NA et al (2005) Behavioral inhibition: linking biology and behavior within a developmental framework. Annu Rev Psychol 56:235–262

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Henderson HA, Pine DS, Fox NA (2015) Behavioral inhibition and developmental risk: a dual-processing perspective. Neuropsychopharmacology 40(1):207–224

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Fox NA et al (2013) Commentary: to intervene or not? Appreciating or treating individual differences in childhood temperament—remarks on Rapee (2013). J Child Psychol Psychiatry 54(7):789–790

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Block JH, Block J (1980) The role of ego-control and ego-resiliency in the organization of behavior. Dev Cogn Affect Soc Relat 13:39–101

    Google Scholar 

  14. Asendorpf JB, van Aken MA (1999) Resilient, overcontrolled, and undercontrolled personality prototypes in childhood: replicability, predictive power, and the trait-type issue. J Pers Soc Psychol 77:815–832

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Robins RW, John OP, Caspi A (1998) The typological approach to studying personality. In: Cairns RB, Bergman LR, Kagan J (eds) Methods and models for studying the individual. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, pp 135–160

    Google Scholar 

  16. Hart D et al (2003) Personality and development in childhood: a person-centered approach. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 68: i122

    Google Scholar 

  17. Asendorpf JB et al (2001) Carving personality description at its joints: confirmation of three replicable personality prototypes for both children and adults. Eur J Pers 15(3):169–198

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Costa PT, McCrae RR (1992) Professional manaul: revised NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO five-factor inventory (NEO-FFI). Psychological Assessment Resources, Odessa

    Google Scholar 

  19. Gilbert KE, Whalen D, Jackson JJ, Tillman R, Barch DM, Luby J (under review) Identifying observed preschool personality types and their associations with longitudinal symptom trajectories

  20. Eisenberg N et al (2000) Dispositional emotionality and regulation: their role in predicting quality of social functioning. J Pers Soc Psychol 78:136–157

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. White LK et al (2011) Behavioral inhibition and anxiety: the moderating roles of inhibitory control and attention shifting. J Abnorm Child Psychol 39(5):735–747

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Moser JS et al (2013) On the relationship between anxiety and error monitoring: a meta-analysis and conceptual framework. Front Hum Neurosci 7:466

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Meyer A et al (2018) Early temperamental fearfulness and the developmental trajectory of error-related brain activity. Dev Psychobiol 60(2):224–231

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Gehring WJ et al (2012) The error-related negativity (ERN/Ne). In: Luck SJ, Kappenman ES (eds) The Oxford handbook of event-related potential components. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 231–291

    Google Scholar 

  25. Eisenberg N, Fabes RA (1992) Emotion, regulation, and the development of social competence. In: Clark MS (ed) Review of personality and social psychology. Sage, Newbury Park, pp 119–150

    Google Scholar 

  26. Newman DL et al (1997) Antecedents of adult interpersonal functioning: effects of individual differences in age 3 temperament. Dev Psychol 33:206–217

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Robins RW et al (1996) Resilient, overcontrolled, and undercontrolled boys: three replicable personality types. J Pers Soc Psychol 70(1):157–171

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Thorell L, Bohlin G, Rydell A-M (2004) Two types of inhibitory control: predictive relations to social functioning. Int J Behav Dev 28:193–203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Brooker RJ, Kiel EJ, Buss KA (2016) Early social fear predicts kindergarteners’ socially anxious behaviors: direct associations, moderation by inhibitory control, and differences from nonsocial fear. Emotion 16(7):997–1010

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Riesel A et al (2015) Overactive performance monitoring as an endophenotype for obsessive-compulsive disorder: evidence from a treatment study. Am J Psychiatry 172(7):665–673

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Gehring WJ, Himle J, Nisenson LG (2000) Action-monitoring dysfunction in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychol Sci 11:1–6

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Meyer A et al (2015) Enhanced error-related brain activity in children predicts the onset of anxiety disorders between the ages of 6 and 9. J Abnorm Psychol 124(2):266–274

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  33. Weinberg A et al (2016) Error-related negativity (ERN) and sustained threat: conceptual framework and empirical evaluation in an adolescent sample. Psychophysiology 53(3):372–385

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Meyer A et al (2012) The development of the error-related negativity (ERN) and its relationship with anxiety: evidence from 8 to 13 year-olds. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2(1):152–161

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Torpey DC et al (2013) Error-related brain activity in young children: associations with parental anxiety and child temperamental negative emotionality. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 54(8):854–862

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  36. Botvinick M et al (2001) Conflict monitoring and cognitive control. Psychol Rev 108(3):624–652

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Buzzell GA et al (2017) Error-induced blindness: error detection leads to impaired sensory processing and lower accuracy at short response-stimulus intervals. J Neurosci 37(11):2895–2903

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  38. Jentzsch I, Dudschig C (2009) Why do we slow down after an error? Mechanisms underlying the effects of posterror slowing. Q J Exp Psychol 62(2):209–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Egger HL, Angold A (2006) Common emotional and behavioral disorders in preschool children: presentation, nosology, and epidemiology. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 47(3–4):313–337

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Luby JL et al (2018) A randomized control trial of parent-child psychotherapy targeting emotion development for early childhood depression. Am J Psychiatry 175:1102–1110

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  41. Achenbach TM, Rescorla LA (2000) Manual for the ASEBA preschool forms and profiles: an integrated system of multi-informant assessment; Child Behavior Checklist for ages 1 1/2–5; Language Development Survey; Caregiver-Teacher Report Form. University of Vermont, Burlington

    Google Scholar 

  42. Achenbach TM (2001) Manual for ABESA school-age forms & profiles. Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families, University of Vermont, Burlington

    Google Scholar 

  43. Kim J et al (2011) Psychometric properties of the behavioral inhibition questionnaire in preschool children. J Pers Assess 93(6):545–555

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  44. Scahill L et al (1997) Children’s Yale-Brown obsessive compulsive scale: reliability and validity. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 36(6):844–852

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Southgate L et al (2008) The development of the childhood retrospective perfectionism questionnaire (CHIRP) in an eating disorder sample. Eur Eat Disord Rev 16(6):451–462

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Gibbons FX, Buunk BP (1999) Individual differences in social comparison: development of a scale of social comparison orientation. J Pers Soc Psychol 76(1):129–142

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Gioia GA, Espy KA, Isquith PK (2003) Behavior rating inventory of executive function-preschool version. Psychological Assessment Resources, Lutz

    Google Scholar 

  48. Gioia GA, Isquith PK, Guy SC, & Kenworthy L (2000) Behavior rating inventory of executive function (BRIEF): a professional manual. Psychological Assessment Resources, Lutz, Florida

    Google Scholar 

  49. Pagliaccio D et al (2015) Revising the BIS/BAS scale to study development: measurement invariance and normative effects of age and sex from childhood through adulthood. Psychol Assess 28(4):429–442

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  50. Gaffrey MS, Luby, JL (2012) Kiddie-Schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia - early childhood version (K-SADS-EC). Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO

    Google Scholar 

  51. Armstrong JM, Goldstein LH, T.M.W.g.o.O. Assessment (2003) Manual for the MacArthur Health and Behavior Questionnaire (HBQ 10). In: Kupfer DJ (ed) MacArthur Foundation Research Network on psychopathology and development. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh

    Google Scholar 

  52. Grammer JK et al (2014) Age-related changes in error processing in young children: a school-based investigation. Dev Cogn Neurosci 9:93–105

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  53. Schneider W, Eschman A, Zuccolotto A (2002) E-Prime (version 2.0) [Computer software and manual]. Psychology Software Tools Inc, Pittsburgh, PA

  54. Gratton G, Coles MG, Donchin E (1983) A new method for off-line removal of ocular artifact. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 55(4):468–484

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Bishop G, Spence SH, Mcdonald C (2003) Can parents and teachers provide a reliable and valid report of behavioral inhibition. Child Dev 74(6):1899–1917

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  56. Cornaccchio D et al (2016) Irritability and anxiety severity among youth with anxiety. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 55(1):54–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Stoddard J et al (2014) Irritability in child and adolescent anxiety disorders. Depression Anxiety 31(7):566–573

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  58. Rouquette A et al (2018) Emotional and behavioral symptom network structure in elementary school girls and association with anxiety disorders and depression in adolescence and early adulthood: a network analysis. JAMA Psychiatry 75:1173–1181

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  59. Stahl J et al (2015) Perfect error processing: perfectionism-related variations in action monitoring and error processing mechanisms. Int J Psychophysiol 97(2):153–162

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. Buzzell GA et al (2017) A neurobehavioral mechanism linking behaviorally inhibited temperament and later adolescent social anxiety. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 56(12):1097–1105

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  61. Park JM et al (2016) Obsessive-compulsive personality traits in youth with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 47:281–290

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  62. Pinto A, Ansell EB, Wright AGC (2011) A new approach to the assessment of obsessive compulsive personality. In: Integrated paper session conducted at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality Assessment, Cambridge, MA

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the many parents and children who participated in the Parent–Child Interaction Treatment Emotion Development (PCIT-ED) study.

Funding

This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01MH098454-04; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02076425; K23 MH115074-01).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, 4444 Forest Park, Suite 2100, St. Louis, MO, 63108, USA

    Kirsten Gilbert, Deanna M. Barch & Joan L. Luby

  2. Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, Box 1125, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Deanna M. Barch

  3. Department of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis, Box 1125, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Deanna M. Barch

Authors
  1. Kirsten Gilbert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Deanna M. Barch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Joan L. Luby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kirsten Gilbert.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

KG, DB and JL have received research grants from National Institute of Health.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Research Involving Human Participants and/or Animals

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 25 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gilbert, K., Barch, D.M. & Luby, J.L. The Overcontrol in Youth Checklist (OCYC): Behavioral and Neural Validation of a Parent-Report of Child Overcontrol in Early Childhood. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 51, 27–38 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-019-00907-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-019-00907-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation