Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Child Psychiatry & Human Development https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-019-00953-x ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Association Between Persistence and Change in Early Childhood Behavioural Problems and Preschool Cognitive Outcomes Stephanie D’Souza 1,2,3  · Lisa Underwood 2,4  · Elizabeth R. Peterson 1,2  · Susan M. B. Morton 2,5  · Karen E. Waldie 1,2 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract The link between behavioural and cognitive difculties is well established. However, research is limited on whether persis- tence and change in behavioural difculties relates to cognitive outcomes, particularly during preschool. We used a large New Zealand birth cohort to investigate how persistence and change in serious behavioural problems from ages 2 to 4.5 years related to measures of cognitive delay at 4.5 years (n = 5885). Using the Strengths and Difculties total problems score at each time point, children were categorised as showing no difculties, improved behaviour, concurrent difculties, and per- sistent difculties. Cognitive measures assessed included receptive language, early literacy ability, and executive control. Our results showed that children with concurrent and persistent behavioural difculties were at a greater risk of showing delays within specifc cognitive domains relative to children with no difculties and were also more likely to show comorbid delays across multiple cognitive domains. Keywords Cohort · Longitudinal · Behaviour · Cognition · Language · Executive control Abbreviations B4SC B4 School Check DCW Data collection wave NZ New Zealand PPVT-III Picture Peabody Vocabulary Test SDQ Strengths and Difculties Questionnaire Introduction Behaviour difculties during early to middle childhood have been linked to a range of negative physical, psychosocial, aca- demic and cognitive outcomes in later childhood, adolescence, and even adulthood [1–9]. However, not all children who show early behavioural problems persist in these difculties later on in life [10–12]. For example, we have previously found that, of children who showed serious behavioural difculties (i.e. clini- cally elevated scores) at age 2 years, 57.8% improved in their behaviour when assessed at 4.5 years [10]. To our knowledge, it is yet to be determined whether children who show persistent behavioural difculties are more likely to experience adverse outcomes relative to children who show difculties at only a single time point. For preschool children, this is particularly Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-019-00953-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Stephanie D’Souza s.dsouza@auckland.ac.nz Lisa Underwood l.underwood@auckland.ac.nz Elizabeth R. Peterson e.peterson@auckland.ac.nz Susan M. B. Morton s.morton@auckland.ac.nz Karen E. Waldie k.waldie@auckland.ac.nz 1 School of Psychology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand 2 Centre for Longitudinal Research - He Ara Ki Mua, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand 3 COMPASS Research Centre, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand 4 Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand 5 School of Population Health, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand