{"doi":"10.1111/jcpp.70008","title":"Examining the association between cognitive ability and emotional problems across childhood using a genetically informative design: could there be a causal relationship?","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Emotional problems co-occur with difficulties in verbal and nonverbal cognitive ability, yet the pathways underlying their association remain poorly understood: It is unclear whether effects may be causal, and to what extent they may run from cognition to emotion, or vice versa. METHODS: Our preregistered analyses included 5,124 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). At ages 7, 9 and 12, emotional problems were assessed through the strengths and difficulties questionnaire, and cognition was assessed using task-based measures. Cross-lagged models examined the influence of cognition and subdomains of verbal and nonverbal abilities on emotional problems and vice versa, across development. Genetic cross-lagged models examined the effect of cognition on emotional problems and vice versa, after controlling for shared genetic and environmental influence. RESULTS: Cross-lagged paths in both directions were observed between cognitive ability and emotional problems (from -0.11 to -0.05). Cross-lagged associations that persisted after accounting for common genetic and environmental influences were between nonverbal ability and emotional problems. Higher emotional problems at age 7 predicted lower nonverbal ability at age 9, with 22% of the phenotypic association remaining. This, in turn, predicted greater emotional problems at age 12, with 13% of the association remaining. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic and environmental factors accounted for a large proportion of the cross-lagged associations. Emotional problems in early childhood could result in a cascade effect, leading to lower nonverbal cognition in middle childhood, which increases the risk of emotional problems in late childhood. These findings highlight the importance of age- and domain-specific interventions.","journal":"Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry","year":2025,"id":545405,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.6075,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1174653,"name":"Iván Voronin","orcid":"0000-0002-9863-177X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":294125,"name":"Margherita Malanchini","orcid":"0000-0002-7257-6119","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":701812,"name":"Tom A. McAdams","orcid":"0000-0002-6825-3499","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1436202,"name":"Meredith Han","orcid":"0000-0002-9467-6700","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":64,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:53:23.001995Z","pmid":"40667738","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}