Adverse caregiving, for example, previous
institutionalization (PI), is often associated with emotion dysregulation that increases anxiety risk. However, the concept of developmental multifinality predicts heterogeneity in anxiety outcomes. Despite this well-known heterogeneity, more work is needed to identify sources of this heterogeneity and how these sources interact with environmental risk to influence mental health. Here, working memory (WM) was examined during late childhood/adolescence as an intra-individual factor to mitigate the risk for
separation anxiety, which is particularly susceptible to caregiving adversities. A modified "object-in-place" task was administered to 110 youths (10-17 years old), with or without a history of PI. The PI youths had elevated
separation anxiety scores, which were anticorrelated with morning
cortisol levels, yet there were no group differences in WM. PI youths showed significant heterogeneity in
separation anxiety symptoms and morning
cortisol levels, and WM moderated the link between caregiving and
separation anxiety and mediated the association between
separation anxiety and morning
cortisol in PI youth. Findings suggest that (a) institutional care exerts divergent developmental consequences on
separation anxiety versus WM, (b) WM interacts with adversity-related emotion dysregulation, and (c) WM may be a therapeutic target for
separation anxiety following early caregiving adversity.