Cognitive flexibility mediates the association between early life stress and habitual behavior

Abstract

Accumulating evidence suggests that exposure to high levels of early life stress (ELS) may lead to a lasting shift between goal-directed and habitual behavioral tendencies. Cognitive flexibility has been shown to be impaired following early life stress and represents a protective factor for the formation of rigid maladaptive behavior, however, whether cognitive flexibility mediates their association is not clear. Against this background we employed a mediation approach in a sample of n = 560 young healthy Chinese to determine whether cognitive flexibility mediates the association between ELS and habitual behavioral tendencies as assessed by the Creature of Habits Scale (COHS). We present and validate a Chinese version of the COHS (COHS-C) and replicate the two factor solution of the original version. Higher ELS exposure was associated with higher habitual behavioral tendencies and lower cognitive flexibility. Importantly, the association between ELS and habitual behavior was fully mediated by cognitive flexibility, suggesting that ELS-associated deficient cognitive flexibility promotes habitual behavioral tendencies in everyday life. Early intervention approaches that aim at promoting cognitive flexibility may increase resilience for dysregulated habit formation following ELS in adulthood.