Background Latent growth curve modeling was used to investigate the longitudinal link between attachment, effortful control (EC), and maladaptive development during middle childhood. Methods In a community sample, children (Time 1: n = 157; Mage = 10.91) and their mothers were examined three times over a two-year period. Attachment was operationalized at a more strategic (self-reported trust in maternal support) and more automatic level (secure base script knowledge). Mothers reported about children’s EC and maladjustment. Results Secure attachment was associated with higher EC, but EC development was only linked with baseline self-reported trust. Also, EC indirectly linked baseline self-reported trust with change in externalizing and internalizing problems over time. In addition, self-reported trust was indirectly linked with change in externalizing problems over time through EC development. Conclusion EC, and, less robustly, EC development were linked with attachment and change in emotional and behavioral problems.

Neurobeachin (NBEA) is a cytoplasmic protein that regulates receptor trafficking, neurotransmitter and hormone secretion, as well as synaptic connectivity. Recently, hippocampus-dependent contextual extinction, the gradual decrease of a conditioned fear response to a context, was suggested to be specifically impaired in male mice with Nbea deficiency (Nbea +/-). The current study examines the role of sex in this effect and whether Nbea also influences cued fear conditioning. We included both female and male mice and used a phased contextual and cued fear acquisition protocol that consists of different phases allowing us to assess fear acquisition, cued and contextual fear memory and within-phase extinction. Performance of Nbea +/- mice during assessment of both contextual and cued fear memory was significantly altered compared to controls, independent of sex. Follow-up analyses revealed that this altered performance could be indicative of impaired within-phase extinction. Altered within-phase extinction was not exclusively attributable to hippocampus, and independent of sex. Our results rather suggest that Nbea influences complex learning more broadly across different brain structures.