PREDICTING COLLEGE STUDENTS’ DIFFERENTIATION OF SELF WITH DIMENSIONS OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILLS

Abstract

ABSTRACT

There is a shortage of research that investigates how, and to what extent, individuals’ capacity for emotional and intellectual functioning, as well as autonomy within familial and intimate relationships (i.e., differentiation of self) is predicted by the core neurocognitive executive functioning dimensions of behavior regulation (i.e., inhibition) and metacognition (i.e., working memory). To address this, participants (N =184) were administered a differentiation of self measure, the Differentiation of Self Inventory- Revised (DSI-R; Skowron & Friedlander, 1998; Skowron & Schmitt, 2003) and an executive functioning measure, the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function Adult Version (BRIEF-A; Roth, Isquith, & Gioia, 2005). In terms of differentiation of self (DoS) predicting dimensions of executive functioning, results indicated that global EF successfully predicted overall DoS. Additionally, when comparing how two core EF dimensions predicted DoS, EF behavior regulatory skills were a better predictor in comparison to EF meta-cognitive skills.